


Trans-Dimensional Shift

by kerbyfullyloaded



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Fix-It: s04e13 Journey's End, Pete's World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-14 00:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5723440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerbyfullyloaded/pseuds/kerbyfullyloaded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mysterious girl appears in one Torchwood, while another Torchwood searches for her. Gifted with knowledge that few in the universe possess, she quickly sets off to return home, and reunite lost friends in the process. Set during seasons 3 and 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Old fic that I started writing before starting college. Found it on a hard drive when I was cleaning out my old room and decided to fix it up and post it here.

The young girl sat in the corner, trying not to be seen. However, it didn't seem to be fear of her surroundings that kept her hidden. She was trying to prevent others in the room from seeing what she was doing. She was fiddling with an odd watch on her wrist, her brow furrowed in consternation.

"Hey, are you alright? It's alright, no one's gonna hurt you," a blonde said, walking carefully over to the girl. Around her, men grabbed their guns, raising them at the girl who had appeared in an odd flash of light.

The girl looked up, her green eyes swiftly taking in the blonde walking towards her, and the men with their guns. Her eyes were disconcerting: so old on such a young face. She didn't look to be more then eighteen, and was wearing a sea-green hoodie and dark blue jeans. "You want to tell them to put down the guns? Then maybe we can talk."

A man with dark brown skin lowered his gun and frowned at her. "You American?" he asked, a London accent coloring his voice, the same as the blonde's.

"Yeah. Obviously. We in London?" The girl asked curiously, giving up on whatever she was trying to do with the watch. At the man's nod, she continued. "Huh, I was in Cardiff a second ago." Suddenly her eyes narrowed, taking in her surroundings more carefully, looking at the logo on one of the computers. "I thought this place was destroyed."

Everyone frowned at her in confusion, until the blonde stepped forward again. "Are you talking about Canary Wharf? The place with the ghosts, yeah?" At the other girl's nod, she continued. "That place was destroyed. This version is still here, 'cept—"

"Oh, I'm going to kill him!" the girl exclaimed. "He got me stuck in a parallel world! What did I tell him about playing with the rift?" she grumbled, and then took a deep breath. "Sorry, um, I'm Sparky. I work for Torchwood Three sometimes; I'm friends with the captain."

"How old are you?" The blonde asked.

"Seventeen," the girl replied with a shrug. "But no, that's not too young. I mean, you humans mature so slow, yeah, but not everyone in the universe." At her words, the guns were back.

"Whoa, put them down. I'm Rose by the way, and this is Mickey Smith. What do you mean though, are you an alien?"

The young girl frowned at her. "Yeah, of course. And if I wasn't, going through the rift unprotected would have killed me, let alone crossing the void. That would have blown all my lives in one go!" she sighed. "But luckily I have some Ziton crystals, so that stabilized things a bit. If I had been in my ship though..." she trailed off, looking unsure.

Rose stared at her, eyes wide. She swiftly grabbed the girl and Mickey, and dragged them into her office, locking the door.

"Rose, what's goin' on? You look like you've seen a ghost or something?" Mickey said.

The blonde ignored her friends questioning. "What are you exactly? What species, what planet?"

The younger girl walked over to the window, observing the alternate world, her sharp eyes taking in the old and new sights. The zeppelins filling the skylines, the Thames gently flowing, many familiar buildings. She took a deep breath as she turned back to Rose and Mickey. "Like I said, my name in Sparky. I was raised on earth, born there actually. Never really knew I wasn't human until I opened that watch..." She took another deep breath, her eyes distant for a moment. "My planet was destroyed in a war, but it was called Gallifrey."

"Gallifrey? You're from Gallifrey? Where is that?" Rose sputtered, staring at the young girl in front of her. Seventeen years old, with natural whitish blond hair and deep green eyes that seemed too old on her young face. She was wearing contemporary clothes common to teenagers. She looked so human that it was difficult to believe that she was wasn't.

"No, I'm from earth. I was born on earth. My species just comes from Gallifrey." She seemed adamant about being from earth, like it was more important than anything. "It's like...if you were an illegal immigrant in America. If you had a kid there, it would automatically be American, despite whatever nationality you are."

Mickey nodded at her. "Okay, well then, what species are you then? I mean, you look pretty humanoid...are you from any future human colonies then? Rose said that she's seen some."

Sparky rolled her eyes. "I can assure you that I am not human. And anyway," she said, turning to Rose, "How would you have seen all of that? I mean, no offense, but twenty-first century earth isn't that advanced, in any universe."

Though the question was aimed at Rose, Mickey replied when he saw Rose's face pale, as it usually did at any reminder of her time with the Doctor. "I think you're avoiding the question."

"I think you're right," Sparky replied lightly. "Hmm, well apparently my people had many names. We were well known across the stars, for our technology and our abilities. But like I said, Gallifrey was lost in a war. It's gone now. I'm not sure if there are many of us left." Rose was regarding this girl intently now; she had a feeling she knew exactly what this girl was. She had mentioned a war, having multiple lives...quite similar to things she had heard from her former travelling companion. "But most commonly, I believe, my people were known as Time Lords...though I think that I would be called a Time Lady."

Mickey gasped, exchanging a look with Rose. "So you're like the Doctor then?"

Sparky's eyes flew to his. "You know the Doctor?"

"Yeah," Rose answered carefully. "I used to travel with him. All 'cross the stars, visitin' so many worlds, meeting' all types of aliens." Her eyes grew sad. "But then I got stuck here."

Sparky regarded Rose carefully now, taking in both her words and the emotions that accompanied them. Obviously, Rose had cared deeply for this Doctor, and didn't enjoy being trapped in the parallel world. "You're not Rose Tyler by any chance, are you?"

Rose gasped. "How'd you know my name?"

"Well, like I said. I worked for Torchwood Three sometimes since I'm friends with the captain...Captain Jack Harkness."

Rose's eyes widened. "Captain Jack? He's alive and workin' for Torchwood? The Doctor never told me about that!" Rose began to sway where she stood, and Mickey guided her to her chair. Offering to get everyone tea to calm them down, he swiftly left the room.

"Yeah, well Jack always wondered why he was left behind. He went back to the past, hoping to find you and the Doctor again. He really misses you both," Sparky said softly, walking to sit across from Rose.

The blonde nodded. "Alrigh', Jack's alive. But I thought that all the Time Lords were killed off in the war? That's what the Doctor said."

Sparky nodded once, her eyes distant. "Well, up until a few months ago, that was true. You see, my parents left Gallifrey when the Daleks began attacking the Citadel. They went to earth and created a life for themselves. But then they were called back, and so my father returned to fight. But when they went to earth initially, they brought me, while I was still inside the loom—Time Lords can't reproduce naturally, they have to use machines—and when I was born, my mother put us both through the Chameleon Arch, which made us both human. Our Time Lord selves were contained in these pocket watches. A few months ago, I was going through the attic, and found mine." Her eyes were now glittering with tears. "Imagine, after growing up one way, discovering everything was a lie? And then, my mother had destroyed her watch, so that she would remain human. You see, my father died in the war, and she actually loved him. Usually, Time Lords just marry for convenience, but they were some of the few that actually married for love."

Rose reached out and grabbed the girl's hand. "I'm sorry, I really am. That must've been horrible. But how do you know all of this, if you were born after the war?"

The younger girl smiled. "There was this thing on Gallifrey, called the Matrix. Every deceased Time Lord's memories were put into it for future use. My father uploaded his memories into a version of it before returning to Gallifrey, and left them with my mother. I found them, and gained a lot of them...he was careful about which ones he left, you see. I think he knew what my mother was going to do, and that I would need him one day. He left me everything about how to work a TARDIS, stuff about the universe. Things that I would need to know if Gallifrey was gone." She cleared her throat, and blinked away the tears, before briskly standing up. "Alright, so do you want to go back to your universe? 'Cause I'm sorry, this place might be nice and all, but it doesn't have that feeling of home."

Rose watched her for a moment. "You know that's impossible, yeah? You can't cross the void, it could collapse."

Sparky grinned at her brightly. "Well then, how did I get here? And anyway, this is Torchwood! I bet you have a bunch of stuff that could be used to help! Namely though, I think we need to find a place with a rift. Want to go to Cardiff?"

"Why you going to Cardiff?" Mickey asked from the door, holding a tray of tea.

"Because Mickey, I'm going home!" Sparky ran out past him, darting down the hall. "And I need transport to Wales, pronto!"


	2. Chapter 2

"So what exactly are you doing?" Rose asked, watching Sparky rapidly type into the computer attached to the rift manipulator. "I mean, d'you really think you can get back to the other universe without either collapsin'?"

Without looking up from her work, Sparky replied, her voice almost bored. "Oh it's not really a question of if but a question of how. Right now, I'm trying to go through any rift activity within a thousand miles, see if I can see exactly what happened when I came through the void. If I can find a way to safely replicate that, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, it seems to be that when I got pulled through, this Torchwood and mine were manipulating the rift at about the same time. So I'm going to have to find a way to contact Jack. And also, since I came through in London, I'm going to have to assume the Rift here branches out to there...probably as a result of the void being punctured there. The rift must have spread out to it, attracted by all of the energy coming through. There must be a lot of energy for me to get pulled through; we might be able to harness that."

Rose nodded. "Well, after I got pulled across, the Doctor found a way to say good-bye to me. He said he burned a star up to do it," she said quietly. Then her expression grew worried. "He also said that it had been less then a day for him—for me it had been two months."

"Oh, time between the universes flows differently. Everything here is a bit more accelerated than back home. The planet is rotating faster, its going around the sun much quicker."

"The Doctor said something like that once...that he could feel everthin' in space."

"Yeah, pretty much. Its kind of disconcerting at first, but you get used to it," Sparky said lightly. "But anyway, if I can do this right, I can get us back closer to when I left, especially if I'm not here too long. Then this world won't have as great a pull on me, and I'll be able to reenter my timeline more smoothly. Hopefully no more than a few months though."

"When was it when you left?" Rose asked, wondering how long it had been in her world, when it had been nearly four years here.

"Oh, its 2007. Early 2007. Elections are coming up actually. There's this bloke named Harold Saxon running, everyone really likes him for some reason. Personally, he gives me the creeps. But yeah," she said, realizing that she was rambling. She finally looked up from the screen, observing Rose carefully. "Maybe a month back, this hospital disappeared in London. Everyone said it went to the moon. Jack had me look into it, and I found out it was the Judoon."

"Judoon on the moon?" Rose said doubtfully. "We've run into them a few times here, they're a bit thick."

Sparky smirked. "Yeah, well can't argue with that. But anyway, I found out that there was this guy there who apparently saved everyone. Wore a suit, had thick brown hair, real skinny."

"Sounds like the Doctor," Rose said carefully, wanting to hear more, but trying not to give away just how badly.

The other girl nodded, returning to her computer work. "Well according to Jack then, he must have regenerated since he last saw you guys on the Game Station. Apparently he used to be a tall guy with really big ears."

"Yeah, that was the old him. Before he regenerated," Rose said, thinking back to her first Doctor, the tall man who she had first seen the stars with.

"Yeah, I've heard some stories from Jack. Of course, they were edited though. He didn't want me getting any ideas and running off and doing something stupid."

Rose laughed. It was nice hearing about her old friend, especially from someone who could actually appreciate who he was. According to Sparky, no one but her and another Torchwood agent, Gwen Cooper, knew that Jack couldn't die; only Sparky knew his real past. "Well, considerin' all the dumb things he's done, at least he's lookin' out for you."

Sparky laughed too. "Yeah. Well he still does some pretty stupid things. Like playing with the rift to fix his vortex manipulator." Suddenly, Sparky froze, her fingers stilling over the keyboard. Her eyes were locked on straight in front of her, but Rose could see that her mind was going light-years per second. It was the same look the Doctor had whenever he had a sudden epiphany. "That's it!" She exclaimed so suddenly that Rose jumped, her hand flying off the other girl's shoulder. "Jack had hooked up his broken vortex manipulator to the rift, which caused it to reach out and envelop me since his manipulator couldn't handle all of that power...and then, because it must be connected to this Torchwood, it sent me through the void safely. The rift must be like a pocket universe mixed up in the time vortex!" She looked at Rose excitedly, her expression almost manic. "I can hook up my vortex manipulator to the rift, and try to replicate the results! And since mine isn't broken, I'll be able to determine when and where we end up!"

Rose regarded her uncertainly. "Is it really that easy?"

Sparky shook her head quickly, returning to the computer. Her typing was even more intense now than it had been before. "Of course not. I still need to figure out how to safely connect my vortex manipulator to the rift, I have to figure out how to contact Jack, make sure that we're both on the exact same page, and get us safely across the rift at the right time. To be honest? I'll be happy being just a few months off of our target."

"Will it be that dangerous? You shouldn't have to risk yourself that way, you know. I'm sure that there are other things we could do," Rose said, staring at Sparky, aware of just how young she was, and how rare.

Sparky scoffed. "Rose, this is probably the safest way, and the way that'll involve the least interference from void stuff. And anyway, I can lock onto Jack's vortex manipulator also since it'll probably be the only one in his time stream. It may not be capable of traveling anywhere, but it still gives off a signal."

Rose looked at her thoughtfully. "You know, your manipulator looks different from his." It was true: Jack's had been big and heavy on technology, whereas Sparky's was simple. It was a gold band with what looked like a long, oval watch-face that had several odd symbols on it. Two buttons sat on either side of the watch-face, and a small hole was set on the opposite side of the face.

Sparky laughed. "That's because you humans tried to replicate technology that you had no right to; of course it would look messy. Mine's from Gallifrey, my dad left it to me along with my TARDIS. It's really called a harmonic shifter, since it drew its power from the Eye of Harmony, which was beneath the citadel."

"What's the Eye of Harmony?" Rose asked.

Sparky looked at her, surprised. "The Doctor never mentioned it? It was the source of power for all TARDIS's, allowed them to move through time and space. Basically though, it was a black hole that a Time Lord named Omega figured out how to manipulate so that the Time Lords could travel in time."

"There was a black hole underneath a city?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but...Rassilon, I think? He put it into balance with Gallifrey so that it could stay safely beneath the planet's surface without beginning to pull everything in. I'm really not that sure though; the Time Lords weren't the best at keeping up with their own history. It could have been him or Omega, not really sure," Sparky said casually, focused more on her work than on what she was saying.

"You know, I think I've heard the Doctor say something about Rassilon once or twice," Rose mused. "Who was he?"

Spark's face darkened slightly. "He's the one who made the Time Lords as strong as they were. He helped give them the ability to travel through time, and was the first Lord President of Gallifrey. However, beyond that, it's impossible to know for sure. My father worked with the matrix to maintain the memories of old Time Lords, and he found that a lot of what was believed to have been done by Rassilon was really just propaganda. While most of my kind insisted that he was a benevolent ruler, others said that he was an opportunist, a bit of a tyrant." She sighed, her green eyes possessing a sense of weariness that Rose had sometimes seen in the Doctor's eyes. "A lot of things about the Time Lords are much darker than they appear once you begin to really look."

Rose nodded slightly. "I kind of saw that sometimes, with the Doctor. When he talked about that Time War, I always thought there must have been more than just the Daleks he was trying to get rid of." The young Time Lady's eyes darkened even more, becoming almost menacing. Before she could speak however, Mickey came bursting into the room.

"You know, this lot doesn't really appreciate you kicking them out of their own base," he remarked, looking like he needed a large glass of coffee or a beer. "They just finished demanding that I tell them what's going on, or that they'll report it to Torchwood One."

Rose scoffed. "Oh, so they're goin' to complain right to Pete Tyler. That'll go over well," she said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well that's what I told them, and they didn't seem too happy." He sunk down into one of the swivel chairs by the computer station Sparky had commandeered. "All I'm sayin' is to be prepared for a bunch of moody mad scientists. I swear, no wonder we chucked this lot off to Cardiff, they're all insane!"

Sparky scoffed. "Yes, and wouldn't you also consider the Doctor insane? They're obviously smart enough and concerned enough to deal with the rift; believe, from what I saw in my universe, it's a full time occupation." Mickey looked sheepishly at her as he shrugged.

Rose sighed. "Well, hopefully we'll all get along well enough in close quarters."

"Why am I meeting your family again?" Sparky mumbled as Rose pulled up to the Tyler Estate. "I'm bad with people, and from what Mickey told me about your mom, I don't really think she'll care for me much." She looked nervous, a trait Rose had never seen in the teenager.

Rose shot a glare at Mickey, who shrugged. "Well, considerin' the welcome she gave the Doctor, I thought it was best for her to be prepared."

Sparky leaned back into the seat, as if she was trying to go through it. "Yeah, please do warn me of any imminent slaps, please." She shuddered. "Meeting other people's families has never really gone well for me, even when I was human. The parents would always begin comparing me to their kids, and trying to figure out why I could be so successful academically while still doing other sports and clubs and stuff, and then my friends would get annoyed. That or the parents were upset that their kid wasn't the freaking perfect center of the universe," she added in disgust, shaking her head.

Mickey laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that from Jackie. She knows Rose isn't perfect." He smirked as he ducked a swipe from Rose. "Nah, she'll probably just fuss over why someone your age is working with us; that or freak out 'cause you're an alien."

Sparky closed her eyes and groaned. "Well, let's hope it's the former then."

Rose sighed. "My mum isn't that bad, and anyway, she probably won't assume you kidnapped me and are doing experiments to my poor, vulnerable self."

Sparky, who had been tiredly rubbing her eyes, paused and stared at her. "What, she thought the Doctor kidnapped you to probe you and have alien babies?" Mortified, Rose nodded. To her chagrin, Sparky began laughing. "Does she know that Time Lords are sterile? That's why we used machines to have children! That, and the fact that most of us were asexual."

Mickey froze as Rose blushed even more. "Are you saying the Doctor doesn't even...do it? I mean, could he even if he wanted to?" he demanded.

Sparky looked uncomfortable now, the subject apparently crossing her comfort zone. "I'm sure he could if he wanted to, but our species didn't really get...aroused like you humans do. We were much more controlled. But honestly, I'm only seventeen; I don't really have much experience with all of this."

"Okay, well here we are!" Rose said loudly, ending the conversation. "The Tyler Estate." As they all got out of the car, an older, blonde woman ran out, wearing a simple outfit of jeans and a sweater.

"Rose!" she exclaimed, bringing her daughter into a hug. "Oh, it's so nice to see you! I can't imagine what you would want to be doing in Cardiff, but no matter, you're home now!"

"It's nice to see you too Mum," Rose said softly, pulling away from her mother. "But, well, we're only going to be here for a bit. We're going back to Cardiff tomorrow."

Both Sparky and Mickey winced at the look Jackie Tyler gave her oldest child. "What do you mean you're going back to Cardiff? You work for Torchwood here, in London!"

"Um, excuse me, Mrs. Tyler?" Sparky said uncertainly, stepping forward to save Rose from her mother's ire. "We're there doing an experiment with rift energy, and how it could get us home, or at least me, if Rose and Mickey want to stay."

Jackie stared at her. "So you're the girl who just appeared, aren't you? Pete told me about you." Sparky nodded carefully. "Well you should know that the Doctor went through hell to close the void, same as my daughter, so you be careful!"

Sparky nodded, looking slightly shocked at how Jackie defended the Doctor. "Of course I will, I don't want to damage the void at all. If I did both universes could collapse and it would all have been pointless anyway. Or, as we're trying to pass over rather unconventionally, the rift could explode, destroy the time vortex and..." she winced slightly. "Let's just say for similar reasons as to why the Doctor blew up his home planet."

Jackie just stared at her. "He what?"

Sparky looked panicked for a moment. "Oh, uh, well, there was a war, and well, bad stuff was happening. I wasn't there so I can't say for certain, but I know that some Time Lords were planning something that would harm the time vortex. So, the Doctor blew up his planet and saved the universe."

Jackie just stared at her for a long moment, attempting to understand what she said. After a long moment she sighed. "Well, let's go inside and have some tea."


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rose demanded. "I'm not going to let you do this if there's a chance you'll get stuck in the void."

Sparky rolled her eyes. "I'm just sending a projection of myself across, so honestly, it is pretty much risk free. And since I'm a Time Lady and my mental capacities are rather impressive, there's basically no chance I could get trapped in between worlds."

Still unsure, Rose just stared at her.

After about a month of configuring the technology she had access to, Sparky had created a system that would allow them to send projections of themselves across the void, so that they would be able to communicate with Jack and align the use of the rift energy. Though Sparky had assured Rose that there was no chance of harm, she was still hesitant, which lead to their current argument.

Sighing, the younger blonde patted Rose on the shoulder. "Honestly Rose, do you think I would risk my brain for fun? I'm certain that this will work, okay? I've been telling you this for days now, you really should believe me." After a long moment, Rose nodded.

Sparky pointed her finger at the appropriate button. "Press that one," she whispered, standing underneath the beam. Rose obliged, and a bright light filled Sparky's vision. Then she was observing a dark room, which almost looked like a sewer.

Sparky frowned and carefully began to walk forward mentally, knowing her body was paralyzed back on the parallel earth. Hearing faint voices, she slipped through the tunnel, coming to a large room filled with odd pig-people and humans, all standing in front of large pepper-pot shaped robots.

Sparky's eyes narrowed. What were Daleks doing here, wherever here was? Looking at her harmonic shifter, she knew she was on earth, in roughly 1930. She obviously had missed the mark, and would have to return back to her body to recalibrate the coordinates. Staying near the wall she moved forward, knowing that although she was very indistinct, she was noticeable. She really didn't want to know what would happen if she was shot in this form. Hopefully her long black coat would help her blend into the shadows, though she really wasn't sure about the green converse she was sporting.

In front of her, a black Dalek was smoking profusely, while the other Daleks began to rant about the 'final experiment.' Just as a dark-toned girl began to step forward, Sparky impulsively made the first move to prevent the human from doing something stupid.

"So you combined a Dalek and a human together? Well, I'm sorry, but that seems kind of stupid. Humans adapt much more easily than Daleks do; the human nature will prevail. And don't mind me asking, but aren't you lot supposed to be in the void right now?" She stepped forward, seeing everyone swivel to see the newcomer. She saw a man behind the black girl wearing a blue suit staring at her in confusion, while everyone else seemed to regard her as a ghost.

"Explain," one Dalek droned. It moved forward, its eye stalk regarding her imperiously.

"Pretty simple question, I think. I have it on good authority that you lot were sucked into the void in, oh, seventy-six years or so in the future? 'Cause you're all part of the Cult of Skaro, right?"

"Identify yourself, human," one Dalek demanded.

Another seemed to scan her. "Human appears to be hologram. Tracing source."

"Oh doubt you'll be able to do that," Sparky said pleasantly. "I mean, it took me over a month just to figure out how to project myself, and I missed! I mean, where are we anyway?"

The girl who had been about to speak earlier stepped forward. It was obvious that she wasn't from this time—she was wearing a red leather jacket and jeans. "New York City," she said uncertainly.

Sparky frowned. "Oh, I was hoping you would at least say London. Damn, I'm a whole continent off. Oh, seems like whatever's cooking in there is about done," she observed nonchalantly.

It was true. The black armor came apart, and out stepped a cross between a Dalek and a human. Sparky frowned at it, slightly disgusted at the human/Dalek.

In Dalek Sec's declaration on the supremacy of the Dalek Race, the other man carefully regarded Sparky. He held up a radio, and then pointed behind him. Sparky nodded, understanding.

After distracting the Daleks with the radio, everyone began to run. Sparky followed the two time travelers through the tunnels until they were in the streets of New York City.

"Who are you," he asked suddenly, locking his intense gaze on the young girl.

"No, who are you? I want to know who I'm following before I tell you anything about me," Sparky replied tightly.

"I'm Martha, and this is the Doctor. It's alright; we're not here to do anything bad." Martha seemed intent on not allowing a fight to occur, sensing the stubbornness of the two people beside her.

"I'm a friend of a friend. Anyway, do you know what the date is in Martha's time stream?" Sparky asked evasively.

"Who's my friend?" The Doctor asked, frustrated.

Sparky smirked. "Oh, just a pink and yellow Rose." She looked down at her harmonic shifter, before realizing she was blinking out. "Oops, powers running low. I'll have to work on that," she said, waving goodbye.

"No, wait, please!" The Doctor exclaimed desperately. But it was too late, she was gone. He stared at the place she had been in, hope warring with pain in his eyes. The strength of the emotions made Martha almost afraid to ask what the girl had meant.

"Doctor?" she asked carefully.

The Doctor snapped out of his thoughts. "Alright, we've got to get to Hooverville and warn everyone that the Daleks are coming. And then, well hopefully she was right," he muttered, racing off and leaving Martha no choice but to follow.

Later, when they returned to the Tardis, Martha decided to breach the subject again. Any information she could glean from this man, she would take. She walked over to him as he set the coordinates.

"Okay, London, earth, 2007," he said, running around the console.

Ignoring the fact that he was taking her home, she questioned the Doctor. "Who did she mean by Rose? Your Rose?"

The Doctor closed his eyes. "It would seem so. Somehow, that girl knows Rose, and it seems that she found a way to send a hologram across from the parallel universe."

 

Back at her Torchwood, Sparky gasped as she returned to her body. "A bit moody, your Doctor," she gasped, tumbling forward. Rose caught her and helped her into a seat.

"You saw the Doctor?" she questioned. Her eyes were staring intently at Sparky, who was just trying to keep her eyes open.

"Yeah, we were off by a bit. Landed in New York City, 1930. He was there with this other girl, Martha. They were trying to get away from the Daleks."

Rose hissed "There were Daleks in New York? How?"

Sparky understood her anger. How did the Daleks always survive, when she was trapped in a parallel world? Sparky shared the sentiments. The Daleks lived on while she had lost her most of her family, her planet, her inheritance. In her mind, they should have been long-since gone, a legend alongside the Time Lords. But she also knew that they were still around for a reason—something was going to happen that they were involved in that would change the universe. She didn't know what, but she felt it every time she thought of them.

"Emergency temporal shift...the same way they escaped the time war. They left Torchwood Tower and got stuck in 1930, in New York City. They were trying some sort of experiment...splicing human and Dalek DNA together." Sparky looked thoughtful. "You know, I hope it actually works out. Dalek Sec looked more human than Dalek, and the human genes would have likely overridden the Dalek ones."

"Well, that's an experiment I won't be helpin' you one," Rose said darkly. "But what were you sayin' about the Doctor?"

"Well he seemed in a right state. Not sure if I've ever seen anyone so grumpy, though Owen Harper could give him a run for his money," Sparky said contemplatively. "But yeah, he was really moody. Even for a British person..." she added with a smirk, ducking as Rose went to swipe her head.

"Well yeah, the Doctor could be a little moody sometimes. But he never was that bad...he always had a light in his eyes, at least in this regeneration," Rose said nostalgically.

"Well then maybe you should go get your eyes checked. 'Cause all I saw there was a grumpy dude in a blue suit and brown coat that really didn't match. I mean, yeah, it's an improvement from all the cloaks and neck pieces that the Time Lords normally wore, but still. And he had on red converses! Red!" Sparky rolled her eyes. "Nobody does that except the people trying to get attention."

Rose smirked a little. "Well, it's not like the Doctor tried to blend in. Always getting' right into the middle of things. And what exactly are you talking about, wearing those shoes?"

Sparky laughed, wiggling her bright green shoes. "You can't judge my shoe choice, seeing as how these are the only ones I have. As for the Doctor, I would say that it's a Time Lord thing, except they always learned on Gallifrey to not interfere. It really was only the rogues who were ever curious and wanted to be involved...though most, from what little I know, usually weren't acting on the best of intention."

Rose frowned. "Really? I mean, I know you said that the Time Lords weren't as great as they seemed, but I can't imagine anyone like the Doctor out to really cause harm."

Sparky frowned at her. "The Doctor was considered an oddity, Rose, not the norm. The only reason he first went to earth was because he stole the TARDIS and was exiled there, and later he was exiled again for interfering with the events of other species and forced to regenerate. But at least he was good, compared to the Rani, or the Master, or Morbius or Borusa," she said contemplatively. "A lot of the rebel Time Lords decided to take advantage of their status and wreak havoc on the rest of the universe."

Rose stared at her. "That's sounds kind of like the Daleks."

Sparky shot her a cold smile. "When you have as much power as the Time Lords did, imagine what that would do to some of them. You humans created the atomic bomb, so you had to use it against an enemy who couldn't hope to match it, just to show your strength and end a war on your terms. You have the internet, and online accounts, and so some humans take advantage of their ability to steal other's money. Some countries have so much wealth, and resources and medicine, and yet you don't share much of it other than to send 'relief' to nations who have nothing compared to yours. You give out power, and no matter what, there will be some who clamor to abuse it, and some who refuse to share it." There was something bitter in her voice that told Rose that there was more to Sparky's words than she was letting on.

"What happened?" Rose asked gently. Sparky looked up at her, her exhausted eyes filled with some unknown emotion.

"I'm just so tired Rose, so tired. Even when I was human, I saw the greed of so many people. I mean, I was a total history geek back then, but the one thing that always disturbed me was that some people have power who shouldn't. When I went back to being a Time Lady, I thought I would see a better history, but instead, I saw one almost the same." Sparky sighed a little. "I guess I saw the world for what it was, a little too soon. But we all have to grow up eventually." Rose stared at her for a long moment. Then she bent down to look her in the eyes, and gave her a wide grin.

"Never."


	4. Chapter 4

"I bloody hate those fob watches!" Sparky growled angrily. She was standing with Rose, who was accompanying her for the first time on their attempts to locate Jack. In front of them, a dance was occurring, and they were hiding behind the curtains of the stage. Both were following the movements of one couple specifically, though Sparky found her eyes drawn to an odd little girl sitting alone.

"Do you mean...the Doctor's made himself human?" Rose asked quietly, her eyes stuck to the man she was trying to hard to return to. He seemed to be enjoying himself, with the arms of another woman around him.

"Yeah, unfortunately. And that means that he has absolutely no idea that he's a Time Lord, or of anything that happened while he was one. He thinks he's a human, with fake human memories and desires," Sparky said darkly. "Which means he's of no help to us." She looked down at her harmonic shifter, and her eyes widened. "Oh, looks like Mickey followed through," she said, her voice completely different now, excited.

Before Rose could ask what she was talking about, Sparky grabbed her hand and pressed a button on her watch. Instantly, both of them collapsed, solidly there.

Rose gasped. "What just happened?" She looked around to see if anyone had noticed them, but it seemed that they hadn't.

Sparky grinned wolfishly. "Power surge. A solar flare was coming up, and I had Mickey let the rift manipulator absorb it to give us a bit more power."

"So we're back now? Or is there a catch?" Rose asked uncertainly. Of course she would be elated to be back here, back with her Doctor, but she would never even get the chance to say goodbye to her Mum now, or her new little brother Tony.

Sparky rolled her eyes. "Of course there's a catch. We can only stay for awhile like this because of the amount of power needed. We're still just projections; I simply solidified us. If I made it so that we were here, we would get pulled into the void if I didn't close it right away, and 1913 doesn't exactly have the best technology to accommodate doing that."

"Why would we get pulled back in? When the Doctor and I—"

"You were in the TARDIS which protected you, and then at Canary Wharf, the void was closed anyway by the time it would have pulled you back in. I have to open the void to send us here, that's why I needed such a large energy surge," the younger blonde explained. Then she frowned. "Oh, seems we've been noticed."

"Who are you two, and why are you dressed so outlandishly?" The woman who had been dancing with the human-Doctor asked.

"Um, you know. Just some travelers passing through. Our trunks got stolen, so we had to borrow my cousin's clothes. He's down at the pub right now," Sparky replied, adopting a British accent to try and blend in. At the woman's steely glare, she hurried to continue. "I'm Ann Jones, and this is my cousin Rose Tyler."

"Ann Jones?" Rose muttered quietly so that only Sparky could hear. The Time Lady just shot her a firm shut up glance, and looked back to the lady affronting them for their information.

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you then, Miss Jones and Miss Tyler. I'm sorry that you had such a misfortune. My name is Joan Redfern; I'm the nurse at the school," she replied politely, losing some of her frost towards the two travelers. "Why don't you come meet Professor Smith? He just went to go fetch drinks."

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh, that's not really necessary," she said firmly but politely. "We're just here to get away from our cousin; he's been in a rather foul mood since our luggage got stolen."

Sparky shot her a glance, raising her eyes. So Rose was avoiding the Doctor? Or was she avoiding the idea of a human Doctor with this Redfern woman? Rose shot her a look back, but to no avail. Deciding that she wasn't going to let Rose miss this opportunity, she shook her head.

"If it wouldn't be a problem, we would be delighted. It's always nice to meet new people," Sparky cheerfully said. The nurse looked between the two of them, confused, and then adopted a polite smile.

"It would my pleasure," she said, not quite pleasant, but still attempting it. She gave Rose a confused look, before leading them over to the human doctor. "You know, there is another Miss Jones; she works at the school as a maid. She came with Professor Smith, since she had worked for his family previously."

"Really? Maybe we're related," Sparky joked. However, Rose had caught the sharp look in her eyes when the nurse had mentioned the maid's name.

Nurse Redfern shook her head. "I doubt it, unless you happen to of African descent."

"What's wrong with that, then? I don't see why being something other than white is a big deal," Rose said defensively; she had made similar arguments in the past for Mickey.

"Ah, now I'm sure Nurse Redfern didn't mean anything like that," a familiar voice retorted amiably. Both travelers spun around, coming face to face with the human Doctor, Professor Smith.

"Ah, John, these two girls have been traveling with their cousin. This is Miss Jones, and this is Miss Tyler," Redfern said, gesturing to the two girls. As soon as she pointed out Rose, Smith's eyes widened. He seemed to think she was a ghost at first, as he blinked and shook his head quickly. Then, realizing his mistake, he molded his face into a polite smile.

"Very nice to meet you both. May I ask what happened to your clothes?" He asked carefully, his eyes straying to Rose every few seconds.

"Ah, our trunks were stolen, so we were stuck wearing our cousin's clothes. I'm sorry that we are so out of place; we just wanted to see what was going on," Sparky said respectfully, with a nod.

Smith nodded. Then he turned to Rose. "I'm so sorry Miss Tyler, but have we met? You seem very familiar," he said, seemingly giving up trying to not focus on her.

"You drew her, in your journal," Nurse Redfern reminded him. "Or at least, someone who looks very similar to her."

Rose blinked. "Really? Me? Well, I'm sure I would remember you Professor. But I'm sorry to say that I don't think we have." Her voice was very careful as she said it, knowing from the looks Sparky gave her that she couldn't try to remind him.

"Well, yes, of course. My mistake," he said humbly. Rose blinked, sure she had never heard that tone before from the Doctor. He really must have changed himself to lose his over inflated ego, she thought. "But, would you care for a dance? I'm sure you would have had many suitors already if you didn't have the misfortune of you things being stolen."

Rose stared at him, flustered, as Sparky's eyes rose at the obvious move he was making. He wanted to get her alone to figure out where he knew her from. Redfern, it seemed, thought differently. "Oh, how kind of you John. Miss Jones and I will—"

"Doctor!" a voice rang out. A dark girl in a maid's uniform rushed towards them. "Doctor, we need to leave now!" Only after her declaration did she notice the group surrounding him. When her eyes settled on Sparky, they widened. "You!" she exclaimed.

Sparky didn't look up at first, focused on the young girl whose face suddenly changed to dark triumph. "Hmm?" she asked, before looking up. "Oh, Martha! Hello! Did he drag you along with him?"

Martha nodded, her eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"

Sparky shrugged good naturedly, her gaze wandering over to the girl briefly again. "I was trying to get back to my friend again, and ended up here. At least I'm on the right continent, huh?" Then her eyes narrowed. "Or, you were on the right continent."

"Her? What are you talking about?" Rose said swiftly, looking at her friend as if she had grown two heads.

Sparky turned to her, and explained in a fervent undertone. "We had to use something to stabilize our way over here, remember? We used your TARDIS key, and we ended up at a place where I'm guessing the TARDIS is nearby?" She looked to Martha, who nodded with wide eyes. "So I'm not totally off the mark, we're just getting pulled across to places the Tardis is, while its on earth at least. I have that much control over it."

Smith and Redfern were staring at the three girls in confusion, but Martha put a voice to it. "Who are you two, really?"

"Well, like I said before, I'm a friend of Rose," Sparky said airily, gesturing to her friend. Martha gasped.

"Your Rose? The Rose? The one that the Doctor lost?" She seemed more shocked by this revelation than anything else.

"He talks about me?" Rose asked, surprised. She knew that the Doctor had said that he wouldn't just forget about her, but she really hadn't been sure if she believed him.

"He barely shuts up about you," Martha replied, smiling at the blonde's shock, despite her previous dislike of her.

Before anyone could reply though, the doors slammed open, and three people with guns walked in. Sparky immediately grabbed Rose and pulled her back, her hand going to her pocket.

"We will have silence!" the boy ordered, striding forward with his gun.

As chaos ensued, Sparky tried to fiddle with her shifter, obviously trying to pull them back. "No, we can't just leave these people!" Rose snapped.

"Well, it's not like we're really meant to be here! And we're just projections, for as long as I can keep the link up. What do you think we'll be able to do?" Sparky whispered fiercely. Rose's eyes widened as she took this in, and she let go of Sparky's wrist. At this point, both Martha and the nurse had been grabbed, guns held to their heads, while the newcomers taunted Mr. Smith.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rose asked fervently, not wanting to let a bloodbath occur. Sparky glanced at her briefly, and then sighed.

"I suppose we can do a bit," she said warily, pulling a gun out of her jacket. "Hey, maybe you should put those away," she yelled casually, raising her gun to point it at the little girl. The three newcomers froze, staring at her in disbelief.

"We will shoot," the boy threatened.

"So will I," Sparky shrugged, glaring at him. The distraction seemed to be all Martha needed, for she twisted out of her captor's grasp, grabbed the gun that had been pointed at her and was now aimed at her assailant. "And so will she, I'm guessing. Now, I've got a good deal of experience with weapons, but Martha over there? She's probably scared. Scared and holding a gun. One of the worst things possible for you right now."

The Family glared at her darkly. "Who are you really?" The teenager asked. "Neither of you are truly in this world, and yet you are able to interact with it as if you were."

"Oh buddy, I may be a projection, but I can still do a lot," Sparky drawled, shooting her gun up in the air, raising her eyes. Then her eyes drifted to her shifter, and they widened. "Oops, well seems that that used up what energy we had." She began fiddling with buttons on her wrist. "Well, Martha, it seems like you've got this covered. I hope we'll see you around!" And with that, the two inter-dimensional travelers vanished.

"Sparky, recharge the shifter and take us back! We have to help them!" Rose demanded as they both struggled to stand up, once more in their bodies.

"Rose, there really isn't much I can do. Anyway, it'll take at least five days to recharge my shifter, and that's about one day in that universe. By the time we got back, it would be too late to do anything anyway. Now, I suggest that you go get something to eat, you look like you're going to pass out," Sparky said shortly to Rose, who indeed did look very pale.

"What happened?" Mickey asked, running over to them. "Did you see the Doctor?" Both girls nodded. "Rose, when you go back again, you're going to have to warn him."

"Warn him about what?" Rose asked, leaning against a desk. She was shaking slightly from the strain of mentally traveling to the other universe.

"The stars." Sparky and Rose looked at him sharply. "More of them. They're going out, and we don't know how to stop it!"

 

Martha carefully watched the Doctor as he moved around the console after saying goodbye to Timothy. She wasn't sure exactly how much he remembered of his time as a human and how he would react to it now that he was himself again. He seemed morose, but that could have just been because of what had happened between him and Joan, and what the Family had done and forced him in turn to do.

"Doctor?" She asked hesitantly. He looked up at her wearily. "How much do you remember?"

"Oh, bit and pieces, it's all a bit blurry. How you humans cope, really, I'll never understand," he said, shaking his head with mock solemnity, turning back to the controls.

Martha bit her lip and nodded. "Do you remember meeting Rose?" she asked gently, knowing that this could hurt him even more than having to break Joan's heart.

His head snapped up. "What?" he demanded, striding over to her. "What about Rose?"

Martha swallowed. "Well, at the dance, before the family showed up, these two girls just suddenly...appeared, I guess. One of them was the girl from New York, and the other introduced herself as Rose." The Doctor took several steps back, but was still staring at Martha intently. "They were talking with you and the Matron for a few minutes before I came over. The one girl, she wouldn't give her name, said that she was trying to get them back to this universe, to find a friend of hers in Cardiff, and that she had been using Rose's TARDIS key as a stabilizer, or something."

The Doctors eyes widened. "Of course!" he exclaimed, his hands running through his hair. "Why didn't I think of that?" He sprinted over to the console, and began typing something it, staring at the monitor intently.

"Think of what, Doctor? What's going on?" Martha asked, slowing moving towards him. Sure, she had seen him manic like this before, but rarely with the full array of emotions warring in his eyes.

 

Sparky sat at her desk, deep within the bowels of Torchwood Three in Cardiff. Surrounding her were three monitors, tracking the rift, the void, and the space around the planet for irregularities. She was clad in sweats and a green, fluffy bath robe, and was clutching a cup of black coffee. The circles under her eyes betrayed how tired she was, as she tried to let the rich, bitter taste of the coffee jolt her senses, so that she could make it to the end of her shift without passing out.

"Superior Time Lord physiology, yeah right," she muttered, sifting through the memories her father had left her, many of which explained the 'wonders' of the body of the Time Lord. None had really mentioned how mortal a Time Lord was before they regenerated for the first time. Nope, it seemed that she had to figure that out on her own.

Suddenly, a beeping noise jolted her out of her cynical pondering. Some type of signal was making its way through the void. Eyes widening, Sparky swiftly began typing, trying to open up her side of the connection so that she could see the transmission.

A familiar face appeared on the screen. "Ah, hello there! I must say, am I pleased to see you!" Sparky just continued to stare at him unblinkingly, her features frozen in shock. "Oh, well," The Doctor said, before clearing his throat. "Thank you for opening the connection over there, this probably wouldn't have gone through otherwise." Sparky nodded mutely. The Doctor frowned at her in bemusement. "Well, you seem rather surprised. Martha told me that you were using a TARDIS key as a stabilizer to get between worlds—rather ingenious, that—and I thought I would use the TARDIS to try and open the connection!"

His glee seemed to melt Sparky's shock. She cleared her throat and nodded. "Not that I'm not impressed that you were able to do that, but I trust you aren't endangering the two universes by opening this link?" she asked him sternly.

He seemed to wilt a little under her stern gaze. "Well, it can't be much worse than what you're doing; honestly, I'm just following the trace of the key from my universe to yours, so however you've been traveling is how this transmission is going through."

Sparky looked relieved. "Okay, good. You have no idea of how pissed I'd be if both universes collapsed after all I've done to prevent that from happening."

The Doctor nodded, seemingly distracted. Sparky smirked, recognizing the mood swings that Mickey always attributed to the Doctor. "Well, not to say this conversation hasn't been pleasant, but is—"

"Rose isn't here; she's in Paris on a mission for Torchwood with Jake. Mickey and I have been holding up the fort here," Sparky interjected softly. "I'm sorry, but Sontarans invaded there, and we didn't think we would be able to make contact with your universe for at least another two days."

A deep disappointment filled his eyes for a brief moment. Before he could reply though, the cell phone in front of Sparky began to vibrate. "One sec'," she said, holding up a finger. "Oh, hey Jake...no! The probic vent is at the base of their neck, if you hit that, they'll be out...no, of course I haven't noticed, I'm not exactly above ground, am I? Yeah, I'm still here, and Mickey's in the other lab room, he's charting the progression of the stars...she what? No, you tell Rose to come back; Sontarans aren't exactly the best at compromise...ah, okay, well tell her if that's how she's going to be...oh good, she actually listened?" The Doctor, who had looked concerned, became confused as Sparky began to laugh, almost hysterically. "She got the potato-head with a potato? Oh that's perfect, absolutely perfect. Just tell her to finish up fast; I've got a surprise for her."

"What exactly is going on?" The Doctor asked apprehensively.

"Oh, the Sontarans have been taking old Cybermen technology to use in their war, and they've been testing it out on innocent people," Sparky said lazily, searching for something. "Be right back," she said, pushing a button on her watch and disappearing. Before the Doctor could react, she was back, looking relatively singed.

Next to her was an equally singed Jake, and what looked like a Sontaran communicator. "Let's see if I can reverse the signal," she muttered, hooking it up to what looked like an iPod. After typing on the touch screen for a moment, a green light blared on the communicator, and she grinned. "There we go, all done."

Jake nodded, wincing slightly as he moved to the screen. "There's a person on your computer," he noted, and then his eyes widened. "Blimey, its you Doctor! Too bad Rose had to be an idiot, or she could have come and seen you!"

"What happened to her? Where's Rose?" the Doctor asked urgently, panic filling his tone.

Jake rolled her eyes. "Well what do you think? She was trying to come up with a peaceful solution. Sayin' that the Sontarans could take the technology if they left earth alone. Course, they didn't like that much. So she took a potato gun that some students had dropped and just started layin' them on them, until the decided to leave the crazy girl alone and let her and their commander talk politics."

Sparky laughed. "I really just wanted to see it with my own eyes, but when I showed up, I was in the way of the ship leaving, and Jake and I...well, we were in the way." She shrugged with a grin. "But I hacked into their communications field to make sure no other ship was going to sneak into this system while Rose was compromising with their commander."

Nodding, the Doctor let her finish. "Alright then, answer me this: who are you?" He asked, letting every 900 years of his life shine through his eyes.

She smiled at him. "Well, I've done a good job of having everyone here call me by a nickname, so I guess I'll share that with you as well, unless you want to tell me your real name, Lord Doctor." The Doctor looked at her in shock, but she continued. "I guess you could call me Sparky." Her phone vibrated, and she bit her lip as she read the text. "And there's Pete requesting my presence. I should go. And Doctor," she said seriously. "I am trying to get her back to you. It's just going to take some time."

Before the Doctor could reply, she vanished again with a faint 'pop.' Jake just grinned. "And that's Sparky for you. Not too big on personal conversations."


	5. Chapter 5

Martha wasn't exactly sure what had happened in the fifteen minutes she had been in the kitchen, making a strong cup of tea for herself. With the manic energy the Doctor was emitting, running around the console room, practically clothed in wires, she had a feeling she would need the caffeine from the tea.

So when she returned to the console room, fully prepared for the maelstrom that was the Doctor in this kind of mood, she paused for a long moment, taking all of the action in.

Or should she say lack of action?

The Doctor was sitting in the pilot seat, in front of the monitor, looking at the blank screen like someone had just kicked a puppy. It was a sharp contrast to the frantic look on his face from before, and made it easily apparent that, whatever had happened while she was gone, didn't go the way the Doctor had wanted.

"Doctor?" Martha asked quietly.

He jumped, and quickly turned to look at her, a grin forcing itself onto his face. "Ah Martha, there you are!" he exclaimed, quickly standing up and spinning around the console. "We're back at your flat in London, and it's only been—"

"What happened?" Martha interrupted, ignoring the panic building up inside of her. He had actually brought her home this time. Could it mean that she would never see this wonderful man again? "And don't even think of lying to me, mister. You were happy as could be just fifteen minutes ago and now you look like someone stole your puppy."

The Doctor opened his mouth quickly, and then shut it again, his expression dark for a moment. Then it immediately cleared, and he frowned at her. "You know, I've never understood what that expression meant," he began, stalling. Martha's glare seemed to freeze any brain activity though, and he slumped down into the jump seat. "I was able to contact that girl from New York—Sparky—and talk to her for a moment."

Martha grinned. "That's great! Why are you so—wait, Sparky? Is that seriously her name?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's probably just a nickname she came up with to seem more anonymous."

Martha laughed. "What, like 'the Doctor?'?"

The Doctor frowned at her. "I'll let you know that the Doctor is a perfectly fine name. Nothing wrong with it at all." Martha just grinned at him for a moment. He sighed. "Anyway, I was able to talk to her for a moment, but Rose wasn't there. Apparently there was some sort of invasion going on in that alternate Paris and she had to go there to sort things out." He looked down at the console. "Rose Tyler: Defender of the Earth, living the life I never could."

Martha frowned at him, something she seemed to be doing a lot lately. He seemed oddly wistful, though she had never heard anything but condemnation of the slow life normal people led. But she followed him out of the TARDIS, back into her own normal life on earth.

 

"Okay, I have a trace on the TARDIS," Sparky said, her voice slightly uncertain. She ran her hand through her hair, staring at the computer screen.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Rose asked, frowning at her friend.

"Yes, well usually. Except it isn't on earth. Or in a time that would be safe to travel to." Seeing Rose's confusion, she clarified. "It's impossibly far into the future. I don't think the Time Lords themselves even traveled that far, until now, I guess."

"Trust the Doctor to be the one that does, then," Rose said with a smirk. Sparky didn't smile though; her face was still staring at the screen in worry. "Okay, what's really the matter?"

Sparky bit her lip, thinking, and Rose was surprised. Sparky had a tendency to act very facetious with the world around her, almost being flippant, but now she seemed genuinely worried about something, instead of giving off a show of bravado.

"I'm sorry Rose, I just don't feel comfortable about this," Sparky said regretfully. "It just...something feels wrong about this." She bit her lip, staring at the screen with the coordinates of their apparent destination.

Rose was also staring at the screen. "I can understand why you're worried about the year, but I don't get why it scares you."

Sparky rolled her eyes, recognizing the bait Rose was trying to set. "That's not what scares me at all. It's just that I can feel something whenever I think about us going there, or even me going there alone."

Rose raised her eyes. "What about me going alone?"

Before she could continue, Sparky immediately ended that train of thought. "Out of the question," she said sharply. "Your mind can't handle crossing the void without mine being there to guide it. And don't even start anything about you trying. Your mind would be shredded." There was no room for argument in her tone, and though Rose chaffed a little at being talked down to by someone six years younger than her, she knew she was right.

"How bad is this feeling you have?" Rose asked quietly. "If it isn't screaming 'death,' you know we have to try and go to warn the Doctor. He's the only one who can stop the stars from going out."

Sparky closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I know," she muttered. Rose let her have a moment, knowing that she was extending her senses to what was, and what could be, to try and discover how large of a danger they would be in. "I can't tell what's going to happen, but is won't kill us, especially since we're projections."

Rose's eyes widened and then narrowed. "That's right! What were you worried about? Nothing can touch us!"

Sparky began powering up the Dimensional Projector, or the 'brain cannon' as Mickey and Jake had dubbed it. "If the link is severed with your mind there and your body here, it would be like death, only you couldn't die. Your body would become a vegetable and eventually wither away, but your mind would be stuck there, without a body, atoms of consciousness floating in the wind. Or, if your mind was destroyed there, which could happen, much the same would happen to your body." All of this she said nonchalantly, as if it were the obvious answer to a simple question, no more important than if Rose had asked what 2x2 was.

Rose paled as she realized the implications of what Sparky said. The teenager looked over at her, eyes challenging. "You wanted to go so badly, so don't you say anything," she warned.

Rose nodded. "No, I still want to go," she said slowly. "You just surprised me, that's all."

Sparky raised an eye. "Well then, ready to go?" she gestured to the area where the projector would send them across the void. Rose nodded and stepped over to the designated area, and Sparky set a timer on the projector before joining her.

A bright light filled their vision, and they both experienced the sensation of moving very rapidly over a great span of space, though both knew their bodies remained back in the hub.

Rose and Sparky gasped as their surroundings asserted themselves into their mental senses. Sparky immediately began looking around at the odd lab they found themselves in, while Rose jerkily took a few steps.

"Why is it so easy for you to move around?" Rose asked, annoyed at how long it took her to get used to moving without a body.

"Well, the Time Lords had the ability to form astral projections of themselves, and this is quite similar. I guess it's a bit instinctive," Sparky shrugged, looking at the odd machines and computers. "What do we have here?" she asked rhetorically, gesturing Rose over with a grin.

"The TARDIS!" she exclaimed excitedly. She ran up to the blue box, wishing she could properly touch her and let her know how much she had missed her. Sparky grinned at Rose for a moment, but then tensed, hearing something behind her.

"Excuse me, but may I ask who you are?" a frail voice asked. Sparky turned around to see an old man walking towards them.

"Oh, hello! I'm sorry for intruding, we're...travelers, and we accidentally landed here. My name is Sparky, and this is Rose," the time lady explained cheerfully.

The old man's eyes widened for a moment. "Rose?" he questioned, and then cleared his throat. "That's a very pretty name, an old flower, wasn't it? Anyway, my name is Professor Yana, and I'm in charge of the project here."

Though she was uncertain about his reaction to Rose's name, Sparky replied without missing a beat. "Could you tell me what you're doing? I've never seen much of this equipment before."

As the Professor explained the science behind the rocket to Utopia to Sparky, Rose began to wander around the lab, taking in all of the old technology that also seemed advanced. Eventually she found herself in the front of the room, where a familiar figure was sitting at the computer.

"Martha?" she questioned.

The girl spun around. "Rose!" she exclaimed, jumping up. "What are you doing here?" She seemed slightly upset at seeing her, and Rose wondered if something was wrong.

"Well, our dimensional projector is linked to the TARDIS," she began sheepishly. Before she could continue, Martha turned back to the computer, which seemed to be broken.

"Doctor, you there?" she called out, refreshing the stream.

"Yeah, we're still here. Jack's almost done," a voice called out. Rose gasped as she heard the Doctor's voice, even though it was distorted by static.

"Professor?" Sparky exclaimed. Rose and Martha turned to see Sparky leading the Professor to a chair, looking concerned and slightly scared. Both also noticed the fob watch in his hand.

Looking at Sparky leading the Professor, Rose realized she was solid as well. "Was there another solar flare?" she demanded, quickly striding over to her friend.

Sparky glanced at her and shook her head. "But Cardiff is going to be experiencing a blackout for awhile." Her voice was extremely serious; Rose realized that with a potential time lord here, Sparky wanted to be as solid as possible to make sure events didn't go awry.

"Its funny, all this talk about time travel and regeneration and dimensions...I heard there was time travel in the old days, but I never really believed it!" he cried, holding his head. He gestured to his fob watch. "I never could tell time; even this old thing is broken!" His assistant, who had briefly introduced herself to Sparky, hovered behind him, obviously worried.

"Chantho, go get him some water," Sparky advised gently.

Martha stepped forward as Chantho hurried to get water. "Professor, where did you get that watch?" she asked, his eyes trained intently on the metal fob watch.

He seemed surprised. "This? I was found with it, an orphan in the storm by the silver devastation. It's just an old relic, just like me. It's broken though."

"How do you know it's broken if you've never opened it?" she pressed. Sparky's eyes seemed to flash at her, mentally telling her to shut up so as not to cause a problem. The force of Spark's thought apparently was enough that, even in this form, she forced Martha to stop talking, looking slightly puzzled.

Not noticing the ire of the person helping him, Professor Yana frowned in consternation. "Oh, well, I don't know," he mumbled.

"Chan, I have your water, tho," Chantho said politely, handing the glass to the Professor, who gratefully drank it all.

"Thank you, my dear," he said courteously, nodding to her.

Rose turned and looked at Martha. "Where did you say the Doctor was?"

Martha shrugged. "He's with Jack, fixing the rocket footprints before it goes off," she said casually. "You know, 'cause the rooms flooded with stet radiation and Jack's the only one who can survive being in there."

Rose nodded carefully. "Well yeah, because he's immortal," she said in the same tone Martha used.

Standing up from the Professor, Sparky patted him on the back with a smile. "You rest, alright?" Then she walked over to the two women. "Jack's here?" she questioned furtively.

Martha nodded, and then her eyes widened. "That's right, you've been looking for him!" she exclaimed. "Can I tell him and the Doctor to come up here?"

"That would be best; I don't want to be wondering around too much, or we'll use to much power if we stray from our access point," she said. Martha nodded and quickly left. Sparky sighed. "And you can stop blabbing about the watch," she muttered.

Rose frowned. "Do you think that he's one of the bad Time Lords?"

Sparky shrugged. "Well, he's certainly not a good once. He obviously used a chameleon arch to flee the war, so he cared more for his own skin than the rest of Gallifrey. I bet he didn't really have a great past with the Time Lords."

"All this talk of time..." a voice muttered behind them. They both spun around to the Professor, who was staring at the watch, with Chantho nervously watching him.

He flipped it open.

Sparky's entire body went rigid as a golden glow engulfed the elderly man, until the light was spent and faded away. She glared at him with mistrust as he observed them all with a malevolent gaze. She seemed terrified and angry at the same time, and Rose stilled as well as the emotions from the two Gallifreyans filled the room.

Without saying a word, the Time Lord began moving briskly around the room. He pulled a lever down, ignoring the protests from his assistant. "Chan, you are locking them in, tho!"

"Sir," Sparky said firmly, prompting him to stop with his hand on another lever and turn to her.

"Sir is nice, but I much prefer Master," he said in the same firm tone, pulling the switch down all the way as regarded the two travelers. "Inter-dimensional travel, now that is a feat," he said snidely. "Pity you haven't figured out how to do it right."

"Just so you know, the war is over; Gallifrey is gone," Sparky said tonelessly, her gaze hard as she stared unblinkingly at the Master. Beside her, Rose felt unbelievably tense. Sparky had told her stories about the Master that she knew from her father's memories, and the animosity between him and the Doctor. She felt worried that the Master would do whatever possible to destroy him.

"Um, Master?" she began quietly, hating how timid she sounded. She cleared her throat as his gaze left Sparky and turned to her. "Just so that you know, the only Time Lords in the universe are here, in this building, right now. Do you really want to do anything to make yourself the last?"

His cruel gaze seemed to burrow into her mind, making her shiver. "Ah, Ms. Rose. The girl who absorbed time and destroyed the Daleks with a thought. I couldn't see it as a human, but I certainly see it now, even if you are just a projection. Time just pulses around you, doesn't it? How must it feel, to have had and lost all of that power? To make one man unkillable, and to kill the Doctor." He seemed to relish the thought. Rose blinked once, and realized he was trying to enter her mind, to see for himself, and forced him out just as Sparky had taught her to do.

As the Master taunted Rose, Sparky had discreetly undone the damage the Master did to the security system, allowing the Doctor, Jack and Martha to return to the control room.

"Sorry, taught her a few tricks," Sparky said unapologetically. "It's always good to know how to protect one's mind."

"Oh? And how would you know how to keep a Time Lord out?" the Master said, returning his focus to Sparky.

She smirked. "Really? You think a human could devise a way to safely travel across the void without any damage to the walls or to those traveling?"

His eyes widened. "You're a Time Lady," he stated. Sparky just smirked, and then grinned as the sound of rushed footsteps reached them.

"Where are they Martha?" the Doctor demanded wildly. He froze upon entering the room, seeing the Master, Sparky and Rose, with Chantho nervously standing off to the side. His eyes flew from Rose to the Master and then back again, and again, as if he couldn't decide on whom to give his focus to. Then he locked eyes with Sparky. "You need to leave, now," he commanded urgently, his eyes flickering back to Rose.

Behind him, Jack had also paused, and stared in shock at seeing Sparky and Rose. "Sparky, you're alive! And looking as good as ever, I can see," he added suavely, trying to diffuse the tension in the room.

Sparky glared. "Oh, don't worry; you'll get to grovel to me later. Now, unfortunately, is not the time Captain."

The Master laughed. "Oh, you've got some attitude, don't you?" he said to Sparky. Then he turned to the Doctor, and the last two Time Lords glared at each other. "Well Doctor, useless as usual I can see. An infant manages to cross dimensions when you can't, and can recognize a latent Time Lord, even as a projection!" Sparky glared fiercely at the Master, and began playing with her watch, almost unconsciously.

Rose, who had been staring at the Doctor and Jack, turned back to Sparky. "Don't you dare," she whispered in her ear, knowing that she had been about to send her back. Unfortunately for them, the Master still seemed to have heard.

"Oh, Miss Rose, your friend is just being proactive. You can't do anything to help from a universe away," he said with mock-politeness. Then suddenly he was wielding a gun. "But you can do plenty of harm."

The shot rang out, and Sparky screamed as she fell in front of Rose, who she had dived in front of. The Doctor sprinted over to her, and Rose and the Doctor both helped her sit up, holding their hands to her stomach.

Sparky waved them off. "I'm a projection, you can't do much to help me!" she hissed, pushing them away to start inputting the coordinates of Torchwood Three into her shifter.

"Ah, very intelligent again. And to risk your life for a human...a very interesting human, though. I can almost see what you would value in her," the Master mused, before also yelling out in pain as Chantho hit him with the electric cable. He stumbled back, into the TARDIS, unnoticed, as Chantho cried.

"Chan, I'm so sorry Professor, tho," she whispered.

The Doctor quickly grabbed Rose's hand as Sparky grabbed her other, preparing to leave. "Don't give her any aspirin, no matter what," he urgently whispered. Rose nodded. "And..." he sighed. "Rose Tyler, I still have to finish that sentence. I—"

And Rose and Sparky were gone, and the Doctor tightly closed his eyes, his hand falling away. He knew that she had nothing to do with it, that it had all been in the return sequence, but he detested Sparky for a moment for separating him from Rose again, just as he had been about to tell her...

"She didn't mean for it to be that moment, Doctor," Jack said gently, patting him on the shoulder. "She's probably kicking herself right now."

With a sigh, the Doctor shook his head. "It's probably better, so that she can get medical attention." The Doctor stood, and glanced around. Martha looked shell-shocked; Chantho was still quietly crying from—wait a moment. "Where's the Master?"

Martha and Jack jumped and looked around, and then everyone turned to look at the TARDIS as it began to dematerialize. "No, wait, please!" The Doctor cried out, sprinting to his ship. He looked into the windows, and could see the flash of regeneration occurring. He took his chance and locked the control of the ship before it finally faded away.

Leaving the four of them alone at the end of the universe.


	6. Chapter 6

With a strong jolt, Rose reappeared in the Torchwood base in Cardiff, completely shocked at the jarring shift of reality. One heartbeat ago, she had been holding tightly onto Sparky, and staring into the Doctor's ancient eyes, as he began to say the words she thought he never would, never let herself imagine that he would.

A moan immediately drew her out of her thoughts, and she almost flew to Sparky, who was clutching her head in pain. Blood was seeping from her fingers where they covered her ears, and more blood was coming from her nose.

"Wha' the hell happened?" Mickey demanded, rushing into the room with Jake. "Did someone get in?" Both men cast a suspicious glance around the room.

Rose shook her head, taking her friend's pulse, finding it weak but steady. "No, she got shot over there, and somehow it hurt her real body, though I really don't know how. But we need to get her to the hospital, now!"

"Already on it boss," Jake said, pulling his phone out and calling for an ambulance. As he did that, Rose and Mickey sat by Sparky, rubbing her back and making soft noises as she cried out in pain.

"Hey, it's alright!" Rose said to her, trying to muster up some enthusiasm but failing. "We'll get you to the hospital and they'll fix you up, alright?"

Sparky turned a weak glare her way. "Oh, twenty-first century medicine. Yes, I feel very safe. If we were in the twenty-ninth, it would be much better." She winced violently, and moments later her eyes rolled back in her head, and she suddenly began to convulse.

Rose and Mickey shared a quick look, and then Mickey scooped Sparky up into his arms, and they sprinted upstairs into the tourist office and into the plaza. An ambulance was pulling up, so they quickly climbed into the back, trying their best to hold Sparky steady.

 

A man in a dark jacket ran across the hanger, frantically trying to find a way to escape his unintended prison. He was beyond desperate: a primitive instinct was at war inside him, taking away the intelligence he had always spouted at the universe. He could recognize that this moment wasn't fixed, and he could divert the future from the one he had seen pass. It could be happier, safer, not the destruction of the few friends he had left in the universe.

She rolled her eyes, watching him pound the door for a moment. The man honestly needed to invest in a communicator of some sort for when situations such as these arose so he could call for the help he incorrectly assumed was banned from him. She cleared her throat, and—

 

The chemical smell of a hospital invaded her senses, and she became aware of the disheveled, wary thoughts that permeated the building she was currently in. She slowly opened her eyes, conscientious of the bright lights shining directly above her bed, and took stock of where she was.

It was obviously a hospital room, with bland, neutral walls, a small window showing off the zeppelins racing across the sky, and a familiar blonde dozing off in the chair beside her bed. It wasn't hard to assume why she was here—the incessant pounding in her head was evidence enough—though she felt uncomfortable at the thought of being at the mercy of others for the entire period she was unconscious. Jack had always told her it was safer to avoid hospitals, and she had heartily agreed with his logic. Who knew what the future of this alternate earth could now hold, if her unique physiology was now in the records?

Sparky stared at Rose for a moment, noticing that she looked more tired than usual, and slightly gaunt, as if she had gone too long without sitting down or resting. Sparky tried to discern how long she had been unconscious, but whatever drugs she was given were messing with her thought process. She sighed, and recognizing that her body still needed rest, allowed her mind to once again go dark…

 

He stood just outside of a dark stall on some seedy, backwater planet. He seemed tired, as if the centuries of running were catching up to him. But there was still a small glimmer of defiance and hope in his eyes, even as he walked into the building with the agent.

When he came out, even that was gone.

He was a man ready to die, having seen what not giving up would do. He had lived a long life, but it had been a life dedicated to trying to help others. What other end could he have, other than sacrificing himself to finish his duty?

But he couldn't have realized what that would do to her. If he died, she would be all alone, the last of her kind. Until she too was hunted down and killed, just on the off-chance that somehow she knew his secret.

But even though she didn't know the secret he had to protect, she had one that was no longer hers to keep.

 

This time, wakefulness was much more violent, even as her mind clung to the pieces of potential futures rattling about her awareness.

"Sparky, you need to get up now! We've managed to get a permanent lock on the Doctor, not the TARDIS," Mickey cried out. Sparky just blinked stupidly at him. "Rose has been trying to contact him, but it's too hard just sending messages. She's trying to cross over right now!"

Sparky jumped up now, still connected to several IVs, and promptly ripped them all out as she fell to the floor. Mickey caught her, and frowned at the small traces of blood running down her arms. Her head spun, but she managed to stand up straight and look Mickey in the eyes.

"Tell me what happened, exactly, to make her do something so stupid."

Mickey nodded, and slid her black coat over her shoulders to cover the hospital scrubs she was dressed in. "Let's walk and talk, I have a car waiting for us outside." As he guided her through the halls of the private hospital, Sparky concentrated on shutting down the pain receptors in her body so she would be more alert and focused. "When you got back, we were worried, because even more stars have been going out, at a higher rate than before. She tried opening a link with the TARDIS to talk to the Doctor, but it wasn't working. She came by earlier to try and wake you up, but the doctor's here wouldn't let her. So she locked herself in the hub and is trying to project herself across the void."

Sparky stopped just outside the doors to the elevators. "So she finally became suicidal then?" she asked flatly, her obvious anger hovering just beneath the surface.

Mickey ushered her into the lift and pressed the bottom button. While her anger was impressive, it wasn't the most impressive he'd ever seen; that honor belonged to the man they were trying so hard to find. "I don't know if suicidal is the word I would use, but reckless and impulsive would do the trick."

Sparky nodded with a cold smirk playing across her face. "I agree. But for what she's trying to do, it pretty much is a death sentence. I can imagine the ire of her mother should she find out." Mickey winced and nodded, helping her out of the elevator and outside, where there was indeed a car waiting. She gently slid in, and Mickey got in behind her. Jake was at the driver's seat, and as soon as the door closed, he tore out of the parking lot.

They drove in silence for a moment, before Sparky spoke again. "How long ago did she lock herself in?" she asked carefully.

"I'd say almost an hour ago. We tried opening the doors but she initiated quarantine so we wouldn't be able to get in," Jake informed her. She nodded, her face becoming calculating as she watched the streets of Cardiff tear by.

"So she's had time to cross over at least once then," the teenager muttered.

Mickey frowned at her. "At least once? She wouldn't be able to project more than that anyway!" Sparky shook her head and gestured outside to the street with one pale finger. Most stores seemed to have lost power, and traffic was beginning to build up in front of them. Jake swore and put the siren on, weaving through the stationary cars. Mickey frowned, and then turned back to Sparky. "So you think she's trying to cross again right now? This isn't just her trying to become solid?"

Sparky shrugged carefully, aware of the small amount of pain still radiating from her side. "I have no idea what she's doing; I'm just pointing out what she could be doing." Her voice was frosty, and Mickey noticed her clenching a fist with one hand in obvious pain. She noticed his worry, and shrugged it off. "I just have a bit of a headache."

He nodded, but still watched her for the rest of the trip in concern. She didn't notice, however, as she was too focused on the immediate future, trying to see if there was the possibility of a funeral coming up.

Blackness. All she saw was an infinite blackness with a mad cackle traveling on the last wind, stirring the remains of universes until even that was gone, leaving just a blank. There was nothing there.

Sparky squeezed her eyes tight, and came back to the present. It alarmed her, how likely of a future that was. The future seemed to go either that way, or one other only...

Fire erupted everywhere, drawing her into its center, into the madness she had just escaped. She could feel the force of it, pulling everything within a certain radius, and she was within that unfortunate pull. She could inexplicably feel the screams and pain of millions of others, and knew she was being dragged into the true hell of her universe. Someone else was there, a flash of bright, bright gold, and a wolf's howl echoing through her mind.

She blinked. That path wasn't as likely as the darkness, but there was a certain pull to it, which made her think that they were more on a path towards it than any other. She exhaled slowly, expelling the worries she felt over the future. It seemed that even if Rose didn't die now, there was any chance she'd be dead soon anyway.

She was frowning heavily as she walked with the two Torchwood agents into the hub (this universe didn't have an invisible lift—that was all Jack, who likely wouldn't ever spend more than a moment in the twenty-first century of this universe, as there was no Doctor to take him to the Gamestation that would lead to his immortality. If there even was a Jack here).

"So what have you done so far to break quarantine?" Sparky questioned, walking up to the group of scientists standing around the door to the main part of the base. None of these people were the agents Jack had recruited, though each was as crazy and brave, though slightly more inclined to follow orders.

Dr. Harper stood up calmly from her desk, where she had been going over reports; as a mortician, she wasn't qualified to try and override the quarantine; she had likely taken the opportunity to catch up on paperwork.

"Hello, Agent Sparks. You seem to be feeling better?" she asked, walking over to her as Mickey went to help with the override. Jake followed him, kneeling down to help try and get the door down.

"Yes, Dr. Harper, thank you," Sparky replied. "So what have you all been doing?"

Harper shrugged and folded her hair behind her ears. "Well, I couldn't tell you the exact logistics of it, but I know that they've tried at least thirty codes to try and open the door, and have tried to cut the power a few times to see if they could get the door on. Of course, it being quarantine, the power wouldn't go out."

Sparky nodded her thanks, and then pulled out her iSonic. It was a rather ingenious device she had created out of an iPhone that she had luckily had on her when she was sucked through the rift. She had added universal roaming, sonic technology and an app to connect to her harmonic shifter to create what was essentially a miniature supercomputer that also had as many abilities as any other sonic device. Including opening doors.

She pointed the device at the door, which promptly hissed opened. Everyone froze, confused, until they saw her hurriedly walking through the door, running to the section of the lab where the cannon was set up.

Rose was indeed hooked into it; she was enveloped by the light that signaled that one was being projected.

Sparky carefully walked over to the computer. It showed that she was on earth, in early 2008 in London, and that she had been gone for about five minutes. Looking worriedly at her friend, Sparky pulled up the history of the device, and then sighed in relief. She had only projected once; otherwise she had just sent out a video feed twice, once to the TARDIS and once to some kind of bus.

"Aren't you going to unplug it?" Dr. Harper asked, looking worriedly at Rose. Sparky shook her head.

"I don't want to risk anything," she replied simply, intently watching her friend. Within a few minutes, Rose returned to herself, gasping loudly and stumbling to the side. Mickey immediately rushed forward and helped her sit in a chair, and Jake handed her some water. Dr. Harper and her husband, the other doctor on staff, started checking her over, making sure everything was fine.

Rose tiredly looked up and noticed Sparky—she seemed both pleased and worried by her presence. "How are you feeling?" she asked breathlessly. Sparky, seeing that her friend was fine, did nothing beyond stare at her with expressionless eyes, leaning against the wall to support herself.

Rose winced. "Alright, I know it was stupid, but it needed to be done. The stars have been going out at quicker pace than before. I couldn't just wait for you to come out of your coma!" Again, Sparky did not reply, simply staring at her. Rose scoffed. "Stop acting like a 5 year old," she started, but was cut off as Sparky calmly walked over and grabbed a fistful of her jacket. Everyone started, but froze when they saw her face. Her expression was completely devoid of emotion, but her eyes were burning fire.

"If you ever do that again, rest assured, I will leave you here and go home myself," she stated flatly. She walked around Rose and began typing in the computer, checking the input of everything. "You should go home and rest while I fix what you've done."

Rose stood up, gaping, but before she could come up with any retort, Mickey grabbed her and led her outside. "Just listen to her for now, okay? Before she goes nuts and tries to kill all of us?" Everyone followed them as they walked out except Dr. Harper.

"Um, Miss Sparks?" she asked hesitantly. Sparky looked over at her tiredly. "I don't think you should get mad at Rose, she was just trying to help."

Sparky nodded and closed her eyes. "Dr. Harper, I see the world much differently than anyone else. I can see what was, is, and what could be. And Rose is rather important for upcoming events—I couldn't tell you why, but I just know that she is. I don't think it will help anyone if she dies because of her stupidity."

Harper nodded. "I understand, or, well, as much as I could, I suppose. But don't you think you should tell her that, then?"

Sparky frowned and shook her head. "It's dangerous to know the future for anyone. I don't want to risk it getting set in stone if it's something bad."

Harper frowned. "Why are you telling me then?"

Sparky regarded her for a moment, her face even more gaunt in the bright light of the computer monitors. "I suppose because you aren't directly involved in any of this. I mean, you're from this universe, you live here in Cardiff. You're not involved with Time Lords and time travel." Grimacing slightly, she continued. "I'm sorry, that makes you sound insignificant. You're not, of course, but you're not a player in these events. "

Dr. Harper nodded. "That makes sense I guess. But I think you should get some rest, once you finish with what you're doing. I mean, you look like you could keel over."

Sparky snorted slightly. "I wasn't quite healed yet when Mickey woke me up," she said simply, turning back to the computers. Understanding that they were done, Dr. Harper went back into her part of the base to finish her paperwork.


	7. Chapter 7

Sparky became aware of people entering the lab slowly, as she was focused on rerouting the wiring of the dimensional shifter to send solid matter rather than the wavelengths constituting mental activity. She wasn’t sure how long she had been in the lab since she left the hospital, but she knew there had been at least one shift change, based on the scent of coffee rather than tea. She was sure someone was just trying to cajole her into taking a break, but she had a rhythm going now, and she wasn’t going to stop for anything but an emergency.

Hands came into onto her arm, attempting to pull her away from the panel she was seated in front of. She shot a cold glare at Mickey. “I’m busy.”

She turned back to the wires, debating on the amount of stabilizers she needed. Mickey snorted behind her. “You’ve been busy for three days. Dr. Harper wants to check on your head and make sure you’re healing alright.”

After a moment, she turned back to him. “Three days?”

He nodded slowly, raising his eyes at her. “Time Lady can’t keep track of time?” She scowled at him, turning away from the shifter. Sparky attempted to stand but stumbled immediately, and Mickey shot forward to catch her. He smirked. “So was that the lack of food or the head trauma?” he asked.

“Both, I guess,” she said with a sigh. He helped her stumble out of the lab, to where Owen was waiting. “Oh, I get you? I was hoping for your better half.”

Dr. Harper leveled her with a dry stare. “I can assure you that I will be strictly professional. Which is more than I can say for you.” She shook her head, but Mickey forced her to sit onto the examination table. 

Dr. Harper led her over to an MRI, and got her set up. She quietly laid in the machine as it hummed around her, scanning her brain to make sure there was no more internal bleeding. “You seem to be in the clear,” he told her after a few minutes. “Which is good, because what can I even give you? I don’t exactly know much about Time Lord biology.”

Sparky shrugged. “Don’t give me aspirin.” She paused, considering. “I am a little hungry as well, do you have any food?”

Dr. Harper rolled his eyes, and pressed the button to bring her out of the MRI. “I’m a doctor, not a chef. Have someone order something for you.”

Sparky turned to Mickey. “I want french fries.”

Mickey laughed. “Only if you call them chips.”

Sparky frowned. “I don’t want chips though.”

 

Rose went down to the lab, pulling her blue coat off. Mickey and Sparky were sitting in front of the large terminal, sharing a basket of chips. They were arguing about the changes needed in the equations they were used to project things across the void to compensate for the weight of matter. 

“Whatcha working on?” She asked, pulling up another seat to sit beside Mickey.

Sparky shot her a glare, still obviously mad at her. Mickey noticed and huffed a laugh. “We think we’re ready to begin sending out matter, if we can get Captain Jack on the phone. We’re going to send some drones over first to make sure everything is working alright, and then we’ll try living things,” he told her, leaning back in his chair.

Rose frowned. “Do we have enough time for all that? Who knows how long it’ll take to get in touch with Jack!”

Sparky rolled her eyes. “I’d rather not get stuck in the void. And any way, I’ve been able to call the Hub a few times, nobody has been there to answer yet. We’ll keep calling them and then start the first physical shifts.”

“Shouldn’t you be trying to call them now?” Rose asked, leaning forward to grab a chip.

Sparky shrugged. “I am. I have the machine set on repeat until someone picks up. I started the program about fifteen minutes ago.”

Rose nodded, looking at the monitor attached to the shifter. “How long are you going to keep it running, then? Just a few hours a day?”

Mickey snorted. “Nah, Ms. Time Lady over here got her medically-mandated few hours of sleep, so she should be set to go without stopping for another few days, ain't that right?”

Sparky scowled at him. “The universe might be ending and you’re upset about my health?”

Rose looked between them. “What’s going on?” She had gone back to London for the weekend, to see Tony and her Mum, and to check in with Pete at Torchwood One.

Mickey smirked. “Well, she spent three days just sitting in here fiddling with everything before Owen finally lost it and made me help him force her to take a break and rest.”

“Yeah, and in those three days I completely reprogrammed the shifter and found a working connection to the rift in our proper universe. I wasn’t being unproductive.”

Rose looked between them before shaking her head. “I’m not going to say anything.”

Sparky glanced at her. “Because if you did, you’d be a hypocrite?”

“Oi, the stars are going out! Sorry that I’m trying to get in touch with the Doctor to warn him! The last time we saw him, he was stuck with the Master at the end of the universe!” Rose exclaimed, throwing her hands up. 

Sparky raised an eye at her. “Mickey did say you made contact with him. Do you know what happened?”

Rose shook her head. “I saw him but I was never able to speak to him. He’s travelling with another woman now, named Donna.”

Sparky bit her lip. “I hope nothing bad happened to Martha.”

Rose sighed, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. “Sometimes the Doctor just leaves people behind.”

Sparky and Mickey glanced at each other, and Sparky nodded her head towards Rose. Mickey turned to try and cheer her up, waving the rest of the chips in her face.

Sparky turned back towards the computer, increasing the time the calls would go before disconnecting. With the time differences between the two universes, she didn’t know how long the phone was actually ringing over there.

“Hello,” a familiar voice called out a few minutes later, and they all crowded around the screen, Rose’s chair falling to the ground in her haste to stand. “I don’t know who this is, but we don’t want to buy whatever you’re selling.”

Sparky grinned, clicking a few buttons on her keyboard. Jack’s face came into view. “I don’t know about that,” she replied happily.

He gasped. “Sparky, Rose? Even Mickey! How the hell are you calling me?”

Rose leaned over Sparky’s shoulder. “We’ve been trying to get in touch with you for months! We figured out how to use the rift to connect our two universes.”

Jack nodded, still looking shocked. “I believe you, but you should have said something last time you saw me, I could have connected with you sooner.” He blinked, and then looked at Sparky in concern. “How are you doing?”

Sparky waved him off. “Eh, that was almost two weeks ago, I’m pretty much healed now.”

“It’s been a week for you?”

Sparky nodded. “How long on your end?”

He frowned for a moment. “It feels like a whole year, with everything that happened. But only four or five days.”

Rose leaned forward again. “What happened with the Master?”

A dark shadow crossed Jack’s face. “He’s been dealt with.” He sighed. “Just, a lot happened, and I don’t really want to talk about it now. But what do you need from me on this end?”

“We’re ready to start sending physical objects across the void instead of just projections. I need you to make sure this connection stays open while I send over some droids. I need to make sure this is safe before any of us come over,” Sparky explained, before hesitating. “Is Tosh still there? She could probably help with this as well.”

Jack nodded. “I can go grab her really fast.”

“Good. And have you heard from the Doctor recently?”

Jack, who had stood up, slowly sat back down. “He left two days ago, I have no idea where he’s at. But if we send him a message that you’re back, I’m sure he’ll come running,” he added with a wink to Rose.

Mickey leaned forward, rolling his eyes. “This is a bit bigger than just getting back over to our universe, Captain Cheesecake. The stars are going out here, and we think there’s something moving through the void killing off all of the universes.”

Jack paled, sitting back. “Explain that again.”

Sparky sighed. “This universe is about two years ahead of yours. Something must have happened in your relative future that destroyed the universe, and its moving across the void to destroy our universe now. We need to find the Doctor and do whatever we can to stop it.”

Jack shook his head. “For once, I’d like there to be some good news with no bad news attached.”

 

“This one has come through successfully,” Tosh reported, examining the small round drone sitting on her desk. I don’t see any signs or damage, internally or externally.”

Across the void, Sparky sat back with a sigh. “Well, lucky number thirteen, I guess.”

It had been two days for Tosh since Sparky began sending drones across the void, about twice that for her. The first few that had been sent over were smoking messes that were unusable. After a few adjustments, things had seemed to be going better, but the insides were missing parts, or the droid had short circuited. 

“I wish we could see how it held up on a return trip,” Tosh said wistfully. 

Sparky shook her head. “It took me over a month to make the shifter work, and you don’t even have all the parts you’d need to do it. We don’t have time.”

Tosh nodded. “I know. This is just such an ingenious design, it would be fascinating to travel from parallel to parallel.”

Sparky nodded. “I agree. Maybe after this is all set and done, we can make a corresponding device in our universe.”

Behind Tosh, Jack walked into the lab. “Are things going better?”

Tosh nodded. “We’ve had a completely successful transfer,” she told him. Then she turned back to Sparky. “Do you want to try a living thing now?”

Sparky nodded, rubbing her neck. “We’d better, I only have one drone left and I’d rather save that for any more adjustments we need to make.” She stood and grabbed a small mouse. “I hope this goes well for you, little guy,” she muttered, putting it in a small box. She walked back over to her computer. “I’m sending a mouse over,” she told them, inputting the command. Behind her, there was a small hiss of displaced matter, and the box was gone.

A moment later, there was a crack on the other side of the screen and a small box appeared in the coordinates Sparky had set, where the rift energy was strongest. 

Jack shot her a smile and opened the box, pulling out a wiggling mouse. “Well hello there.” He said with a wide grin, showing Sparky the living mouse. She leaned back in relief, before grabbing her phone and sending a message.

“I’m just going to x-ray it, and then you can send larger mammals if you want,” Tosh said, taking the mouse from Jack. She walked away, into the morgue where Owen kept the x-ray machine.

Jack sat in her seat. “Well, you did something the Doctor couldn’t do. That’s always something you can put on a resume.”

Sparky laughed, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t have ever thought of this unless I had fallen between the rifts.”

“So what do you have next for us? A goat, a pig? I know you would never risk sending a dog.”

Sparky smiled sadly. “Me and Rose,” she replied. “She’s saying goodbye to her family now.”

Jack sat up straighter. “You had one successful go, on your first try with a living animal. Don’t get too hasty.”

She shook her head. “The sky is almost completely black here. The only stars left are the ones that are closest to this earth. I’d say we have less than two weeks left until everything is gone.”

Jack stared at her and then sighed. “So Mickey isn’t coming?”

Sparky shrugged. “He’s probably going to go with us too, actually. But I can tell he’s uncertain about it, so I’m not making any guarantees.”

He nodded slowly. Behind Sparky, Mickey and Rose both appeared, each in their coat with hiking bags on their back. “We’re ready to go,” Rose announced. Sparky glanced at Mickey and he nodded as well, his jaw tight.

Sparky nodded slowly, getting up and pulling a thick silver circlet out of a drawer. “Which one of you is going first? The shifter won’t be able to take all three of us at once.”

“You didn’t say anything about that,” Mickey accused, crossing his arms. 

Sparky shrugged. “It would be too much mass for us to safely account for right now, and I wouldn’t be able to mentally shield both of you. So one of you is going first, and you get to wear this,” she said with a grin, shaking the circlet.

Rose stepped forward, peering down at it. “What is that exactly?”

“I guess you could say its a mind helmet. I made it before the last jump I went on. Going through the rift or the void alone without a capsule is enough to leave mental scars, let alone both. This should serve as protection,” Sparky explained, holding it out to them.

Mickey grabbed it. “I’ll go first, I don’t want you going through my head anyway.”

Sparky frowned at him. “I wouldn’t be be going through your head, I would just be providing a telepathic barrier to prevent any traumatic--”

“Don’t start. Rose has had you do this to her already, so she should be fine,” Mickey said, putting the circlet on his head and walking over to the shifter. “Anyway, I should go first to make sure its safe for both of you. Better I turn into a drooling vegetable that one of you two anyway.”

Rose ran over to him, hugging him tightly. “Oh Mickey, never let anyone say you’re the tin dog,” she told him, kissing him on the cheek. He smiled at her and gently pushed her back.

“I’m all set to go,” he told Sparky. She gave him an encouraging smile ans stepped back to the computer.

“Jack, does Tosh have her results back yet?”

“I do,” Tosh said, pushing Jack out of her chair, causing him to fall with a yelp. “Everything is set to go. We’ll be on standby.”

Sparky nodded, activating the shifter. “Get ready Mickey Smith, you’re about to be the first human to travel the void and rift without a capsule!” She said, entering the final code. With a loud hiss, he was gone.

Rose ran over to the monitor and they waited for him to appear on the other side. The seconds ticked by and Sparky felt dread building, fearful that she had just killed him, when he appeared and fell into Jack’s waiting arms. 

“Whoa there Mickey Mouse,” Jack grunted, half-dragging him into a chair.

“I feel like I was put through a blender,” Mickey moaned, looking a little pale.

Tosh quickly began checking his vitals as Sparky examined the data that came through from his shift. “Everything looks good on our end,” she announced.

Tosh nodded. “He seems to be okay. I would want to do more thorough testing before recommending a two-person shift, but I understand that you’re in a hurry.”

Sparking nodded, gesturing that Rose should step onto the platform, inputting a secondary set of codes before activating the shifter a final time and grabbing her own bag. “I put this on a thirty-second delay,” she said, joining Rose on the small platform before putting her fingers over her temples. Rose started to protest, but Sparky shushed her. “This is the best way for me to protect you,” she managed to say, extending her mind to Rose’s like a shield, before they were yanked out of the universe.

It was like being squeezed through a tube that was swept up in a tornado. It was cold and it was burning, infinite blackness and searing light. Sparky could barely comprehend the skip through the void into her own universe’s rift, joined by the smallest stream of energy connecting the two rips in space-time. The thread was so small the she marveled at even getting a thought through it, let alone people.

The landing, in comparison, was much more pleasant.

“Rose, get off of me, I can’t breath,” Sparky gasped after she hit the ground.

Rose groggily raised her head. “Where are we?”

Sparky was about to answer, when she realized they weren’t in the Hub. Or Cardiff.

“London?” She replied, wincing at the crack in her voice. 

Rose rolled off of her with a groan before sitting up. She looked around, her eyes becoming sharp as she took in their surroundings. “Something’s wrong,” she said, gesturing to the sky.

Sparky looked up and gaped at the giant spider web falling to earth. “But that happened before I got pulled into the other world!” She got up, stumbling a bit at the wave of dizziness that passed through her. “I remember helping Jack with the clean up.”

Around them, there were screams and people running. The panic on the street was growing as the web fell to Earth, and no one paid either of them any mind. 

Rose looked around, biting her lip. “I think we should help them,” she said carefully.

Sparky immediately shook her head. “We can’t risk the chance of a paradox,” she said quickly. “Past-me is almost here with Jack right now, and I’m sure the Doctor is around here somewhere. He can’t see you yet.”

She could tell Rose was struggling with this idea. “We could at least help people who have been hurt,” she shot back.

Sparky sighed. “I guess if we’re careful we could. But our priority should be getting back to the Torchwood of our time. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can find the Doctor and warn him.”

Rose bit her lip, but stood up and started walking towards a woman laying alone on the ground about twenty yards away. Rose bent down to softly talk with her and started to help her up.

Sparky stood up more slowly and began fiddling with her harmonic shifter. It turned on for the first time since she fell through the rift, but the readings were distorted in a way they shouldn’t have been. She pulled out her iSonic and attached it to her shifter, and began checking the area for any irregularities that could be causing it.

The distortion was massive, and it difficult to parse through any of the data that was coming back to her, but it seemed to be centralized somewhere close to where she was standing. She began following the signal, turning onto a busier street where people in bars were pressed to the televisions, watching replays of the web falling after being shot down.

Sparky drew short when she saw that, and walked back to the window. Again, the news showed a large beam shoot down the web from high in space.

That wasn’t quite right, she thought. It had been coming closer to earth before it was shot down, after the Queen Racnoss had tried to call for reinforcements, or at least it had seemed that way according to the grainy videos she had been shown before.

Shaking her head, she glanced down at her iSonic again, and realized the source of the distortion was very close. She looked around, but she only saw a redheaded woman walking away from her, towards the Thames. She looked down, and saw that the signal was also moving towards the Thames. Without a thought, Sparky began to follow the woman.

When she got closer to the river, however, she drew up short. A body was being loaded into an ambulance. Something in her mind twisted, and she had to lean against a wall. She vaguely heard a voice declare “The Doctor is dead.”

Rose came running up behind her, also drawn to the group around the ambulance. “What’s going on?” She asked breathlessly. “What did they find? Did they find someone?” Sparky shook her head, but the redhead answered. 

“I don’t know, a bloke called the Doctor or something,” she said gently to Rose, whose eyes widened. 

“Well, where is he?” She asked, craning her neck to try and see around all the trucks. Sparky just slid down the wall, not wanting to see her face.

“They took him away,” the redhead told her. “He’s dead.” She said it matter-of-factly, like she wasn’t breaking the heart of the girl standing in front of her. Even from a few yards away, Sparky could hear Rose’s sharp intake of breath. “Did you know him? They didn’t say his name, it could be any doctor.”

“We came so far,” Rose muttered, looking over at Sparky, before narrowing her eyes. “But this is wrong, so wrong. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. You were here before, it didn’t go like this” she said, gesturing to Sparky, who shook her head. She looked back at the redhead. “What’s your name?” She asked, walking over to Sparky and yanking her up with a hard pull.

The woman looked confused and surprised. “I’m Donna. You?”

“We shouldn’t even be here,” Sparky said quietly, before noticing...something on Donna’s back. From the way Rose was looking at her, she noticed something was wrong too. It almost looked like pincers. “This isn’t where we were supposed to go,” she finished after a moment.

Donna frowned, looking between them. “You both keep looking at my back.” Both blondes began to shake their heads. “Yes, yes you do. People keep looking at my back, what is on my back?” She turned to look, and Sparky grabbed Rose and shifted them away.

The stumbled into a parking lot with a large warehouse just ahead.

Rose turned towards Sparky, who began walking towards the warehouse. “What the hell is happening? The Doctor can’t be dead, we’ve seen him, in his future!”

Sparky nodded, gesturing for Rose to follow her. “Exactly. We’re in a universe where he died under the Thames. You said he was traveling with a redhead now?” Rose nodded, looking confused and upset. “I think Donna was meant to be with him. I know you can’t see it, but her timelines were all wrong. They were knotted, and that thing on her back…”

“What was that?” Rose asked. “I couldn’t see it clearly, it was like it was distorted or something. But I could see this shape moving around on her back and shoulders.”

Sparky glanced at her. “I’m surprised you could see even that, only people with some kind of telepathic abilities should have been able to see any of it.” Rose frowned at her, but she continued. “I’m not quite sure what it was, exactly, but it looked like it was choking her timelines, knotting them up behind her and forcing a new one to grow. The knotted ones were complicated enough to tell she was a time traveller.”

Rose nodded. “So something in her past changed, and the future is different now?”

Sparky paused. “I don’t think it changed. Somehow, we’re in another parallel world. It must have been created right when we were passing over, or the weight of the two of us passing into the rift threw us off course.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Of course. Do we just shift out of this one, then, or do we try to undo the change?”

Sparky hummed in thought. “We could try just leave, yeah. But there’s something about this place that seems different than Pete’s universe, like it’s somehow closer to ours. I think if we left, Donna would be stuck here. She’s the epicenter of this entire new universe, and who knows how that could affect our world.”

Rose sighed. “So we’re going to change the past? Because that hasn’t gone well for me before.”

Sparky nodded with a small grin. “Exciting, isn’t it?” She smirked, before stepping into the warehouse. “Hello ladies and gentlemen of UNIT, I’m here to examine a TARDIS.”


	8. Chapter 8

“You don’t need to be so difficult,” Sparky huffed.

Magambo raised her eyes at her. “Two strange women walk into a secure military facility and demand to be given the ship of our recently deceased and most valuable ally. I’m sure you can understand why I’d be hesitant to ever let you leave this room.”

“Look,” Rose snapped. “I used to travel with the Doctor, and she’s a Time Lady. Between the two of us, we know how to use the TARDIS. I don’t think you can say the same.”

“Then why won’t you tell us your name?”

Rose sighed. “Because it could affect the entire causal nexus of this bubble universe, and things could become much worse.”

Magambo leaned back in her seat. “And there’s that, too. A bubble universe, really?”

Sparky glared at her. “I’ve already allowed you to do a run-up on me. I have two hearts. Is it really so hard to believe that I might know more than you?”

Magambo leveled her with a cool stare. “How can I be sure you didn’t kill the Doctor so that you could take his TARDIS?”

Rose stepped forward, eyes heated. “I would have died for the Doctor, in a heartbeat. Do you think I would be helping his killer?” The fire in her words seemed to affect the Captain, who looked down for a moment, deep in thought.

Sparky sighed. “Captain, I’m still trying to figure this out myself,” she admitted. “Somehow the past was changed, and this entire reality was created as a result. To be honest, I didn’t even think that could happen, but time travelers can have a huge effect on the world around them.”

Magambo nodded slowly. “Yes, the woman you were talking about. Who is she again?”

Rose and Sparky glanced at each other. “All we know is that her name is Donna, and she’s supposed to travel with the Doctor,” Rose told her carefully. “We’ve been...off-world for a while though, so we can’t tell you any more than that.”

Sparky leaned forward. “I need you to understand that it is absolutely imperative that we put things to rights in this universe, so that Donna can go back to the Doctor, and we can warn him about the Darkness.”

“And what exactly is the Darkness?”

Sparky looked up, obviously frustrated, and Rose sighed. “Captain, I think you’d better call in all the higher-ups for this. And maybe send for some tea.”

 

Rose walked over to the station Sparky was at, glancing at the TARDIS for a moment, before quickly averting her eyes. Something about the ship made her uncomfortable, as if something was pressing behind her eyes. It was frustrating, because the ship had been her home for years, but now Rose could barely stand to look at her.

“They want us to compile a list of every major event the Doctor was involved in that we know of,” Rose told the other girl.

Sparky looked up from where she was connecting wires to a hard drive. “What do they want that for?” she asked, completely bewildered.

Rose rolled her eyes. “To figure out how much trouble they’re in, I’m guessing.”

Sparky shrugged. “Well, you don’t really know anything, and I was gone for almost six months in this universe. The last thing I know of was a hospital going to the moon.”

Rose nodded. “That’s something to tide them over, at least.”

Sparky shrugged. “All I know is that the Doctor was there, and the Judoon. I don’t know why the hospital was taken to the moon, so I don’t really know if UNIT can do much to help prevent it from happening again.”

Rose nodded seriously, before sighing. “I feel like they’re going to lock us up somewhere unless we stay useful,” she confessed.

Sparky glanced up from the wires she was connecting. “This isn’t the old Torchwood,” she said gently. “Jack always spoke highly of UNIT. I don’t think they’re the type to lock people up, from what he said.”

Rose raised her eyes. “What happened to Tosh, then?”

Sparky winced. “I don’t think they would lock people up without a reason,” she amended. “And you travelled with the Doctor, so I think they’d be more likely to respect you.”

“Aren’t you worried about yourself?” Rose asked, crossing her arms.

Sparky rolled her eyes. “I’m a Time Lady currently creating a rudimentary time travel machine out of scraps. I think I’m safe for now.” She pulled a strand of hair behind her ears, critically examining the hard drive. “Would you mind helping me with something?”

Rose nodded slowly. “I’m not sure exactly what I can do, but yeah.”

Sparky shot her a smile. “Thanks,” she said, before reaching into a box near her feet and pulling out a thick coil of wire. “I need you to hook this up to the TARDIS, I’m going to need to use her artron energy to help us pass through the time vortex.”

Rose glanced at the TARDIS uncomfortably. “I still don’t get why we can’t just use your shifter,” she hedged carefully, keeping her back to the ship.

Sparky scowled. “Donna’s the one who will have to set this universe right, and I’m not going to just hand off my shifter to her.”

“Why don’t you go back with her then?” Rose asked, leaning against the wall.

Sparky rolled her eyes and gestured to her wrist, where her harmonic shifter sat. “I could use this in the proper universe. But here, it’s only good to travel through space, not time. The time vortex isn’t on the same frequency, and it isn’t worth the effort or risk of trying to tear this apart to set it to the same frequency when there’s a viable alternative.”

Rose frowned and glanced back at the TARDIS nervously. “Alright then,” she muttered, grabbing the wiring from Sparky, who flashed a quick smile in thanks.

Rose carefully stepped up to the TARDIS, glancing back at Sparky, before inserting her key and stepping through the doors, the pressure in her head increasing all the while. As she stepped onto the grating, the doors shut behind her with a soft ‘click.’ Before she could do anything, however, she was bombarded.

Happy-longing-lonely-sad-empty-so-empty-all-alone-wolf-is-back-only-one-left-lonely-so-empty-sad-sad-sad-ALONE-ALL-ALONE.

Tears sprung into her eyes, and she sank to the ground.

“Oh, girl,” she whispered, voice choked up. She gently rubbed a coral strut near her. “You were just looking for someone to connect with. I’m so sorry that I didn’t understand.” The pressure must have been the TARDIS reaching out to her without hurting her or forcing itself into her mind.

The stream of emotions tapered off a bit, less heavy in her mind, but there was still overwhelming grief.

“We’re trying to fix this,” she murmured, looking up at the console. “You don’t know her, but Sparky is a Time Lady, and she’s going to fix this world, get the Doctor back to you.”

There was cautious hope now in the stream of emotions, along with some fear—fear for her?

“I’ll be alright, I’ve been through plenty already. Sparky and I got here through the void and the rift! I’m sure we can set this bubble universe right without a hitch.”

Exasperated fondness came from the TARDIS, along with happiness and an odd sense of relief directed at her. Rose gathered that the TARDIS had missed her as well. She put her hand to one of the coral struts for a moment.

“I’ve missed you too, so much,” she whispered. “We worked so hard to get here, to get back to you and to the Doctor, but instead we came through to this bubble universe.” Tears sprang into her eyes in frustration, but she quickly wiped them away. There was no point in crying, not when there were things she could do to fix this situation.

She held up the cord Sparky had handed her. “We need to connect you to the time machine that Sparky is building, something about artron energy?” A sensation like an irritated huff crossed her mind when she mentioned the device Sparky was building, and she grinned. “Don’t worry girl, nothing can ever replace you!”

A beep came from the console, and she stepped towards it, seeing an outlet flashing. She quickly plugged the wire in, and glanced outside the TARDIS.

“Is it working?” she called to Sparky.

Sparky was intently looking at the screen of the device, but she gave a thumbs up to Rose. “It looks like. Hopefully we can finish this up by the end of the month.”

“That’s a very optimistic view,” Captain Magambo replied, stepping into the room with another scientist by her side. “We’ve been trying to replicate the Doctor’s technology for decades without success.”

The sensation of a light push encouraging Rose to step out of the TARDIS came. She smiled back at the TARDIS, and stepped out, walking over to stand beside Sparky.

Sparky raised her eyes. “That’s your issue then, you don’t have the means or materials to, uh, replicate the TARDIS. That’s why I’m doing something a bit different.”

The scientist standing next to the Captain stepped forward. “What exactly are you doing then, if you aren’t copying the Doctor’s technology?”

Sparky raised her eyes and stared at him for a long moment. “First, it isn’t the Doctor’s technology, its Time Lord science. And I’d be happy to show you what I’m doing, though I don’t think you’ll remember once we get this universe sorted out.” She gestured beneath the panel she was working on. “I would appreciate some help with wiring all of this though, uh—”

The scientist, who had started forward at Sparky’s offer, immediately stood up straight, fixing his glasses. “Oh! It’s Taylor—Malcom Taylor—Dr. Malcom Talyor!”

Sparky stared at him for a moment, a slow smile building on her face. “Alright Dr. Taylor, if you could grab the screwdriver, you can help me open this paneling while I start explaining this to you.” The man almost tripped over himself reaching down into the toolbox Sparky was using.

Magambo shot an unimpressed look at Dr. Taylor before glancing at Rose. “I don’t know how much help we can be to them,” she said dryly.

Rose grinned at her. “Oh, I can barely follow along. I just do what Sparky tells me.”

The Captain allowed a small smile to cross her face. “Would you like to join me in the mess while these two continue working?”

Sparky jumped up from where she was kneeling. “Wait,” she said quickly. “Rose, I need you to put this around the outlet in the TARDIS, it should reinforce the wiring so the artron energy doesn’t cause it to decay.” She tossed an oddly silky roll of tape at her.

Rose stared at it, then at Sparky. “What is this?”

Sparky shrugged, already ducking back down to the panel. “Synthetic nylon tape.”

“Where did you get it?” A quick glance up told Rose all she needed to know. “Were you trading things with the aliens in Cardiff?”

“...of course not, that would violate the rules,” Sparky said casually, still looking down.

Rose rolled her eyes, shared an exasperated look with Magambo, and started to walk to the TARDIS. There was no point in chastising the younger girl—they were a universe away.

Rose entered the TARDIS, feeling the warm glow from before envelop her mind. “I’m just going to put this around the outlet and wire,” she murmured, stepping up to the console. “I suppose this is supposed to keep the wire from fraying,” she said to the time machine as she worked. “Of course, I have no idea what this really is, so I’ll just hope Sparky knows what she’s doing.” The TARDIS let out an amused hum, and sent affirmation to her.

Once Rose was finished applying the odd tape—which caused her fingers to become oddly sticky, making it harder to wrap it around the tire the longer she worked on it—she closed her eyes and sat on the console seat.

“I’ve missed you both so much,” she whispered, feeling tears spring into her eyes again. “It’s been so hard trying to get back, and I don’t know if we have enough time to even save the universe from the Darkness. I don’t even know if I’ll even see the Doctor again.”

A low hum echoed through the console room, and comforting warmth filled her mind for a moment, before the presence in her head became hesitant. Rose opened her eyes. “What is it?” she murmured, looking at the console.

The presence became larger for a moment, giving Rose a sense of the immensity of this ship’s consciousness, before flashes appeared before her eyes.

_The redhead—Donna—standing outside some posh inn while a mushroom cloud grew larger in the distance, wailing and screaming heard throughout the countryside._

_Donna staring at a military convoy taking families away, most tearfully clutching at each other. An older man stands beside her, tears in his eyes and a look of resigned horror etched onto his face._

_Donna, standing beside the old man, who is looking in confusion at his telescope. Donna turns, and looks at her with determination and resignation._

“Rose, Rose? What happened?” A voice exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her up.

Rose gasped, the console room coming into focus around her. Sparky was bent over her, trying to pull her off the grating.

“Did I fall?” she breathed out.

Sparky shook her head. “I don’t know what happened, you were in here for a while so I came to check on you, and you were on the ground.”

Rose stared at her for a moment, before the TARDIS nudged her. “I...the TARDIS, I think she was showing me the future. Donna’s future, here, at least.”

“What?”

Rose glanced away from Sparky’s bewildered look. “I don’t know, she showed me meeting Donna a few times, always after something bad happened...the last one was the stars going out here, I think.”

Sparky inhaled sharply. “Could you tell how far into the future that was, from your, uh, your vision?”

Rose frowned for a moment, thinking back on the Donna and the man with the telescope. The answer seemed to just pop into her head. “Three months,” she said certainly. “We have three months until this universe starts to fall apart.”

Sparky blinked, running a hand through her hair. “I should easily be able to finish the machine by then, if we can get the materials I need quickly enough,” she muttered, before focusing back on Rose. “You’re absolutely certain about this? The TARDIS actually showed you the future?”

Rose sighed, looking at her in exasperation. “I don’t know how to explain it, it just happened.”

Sparky opened her mouth, before a gold film seemed to come over Rose’s eyes, and she fell back down. “Rose?” Sparky exclaimed, reaching down for her.

Rose felt Sparky touch her arm, and then something pass through her, into Sparky, but it happened too fast for her to actually see, or feel, what it was. The gold film lifted, and Sparky was gaping down at her.

“I didn’t realize you had a connection to the TARDIS,” the Time Lady murmured.

“What just happened?” Rose asked. Her head was beginning to hurt, as if she had watched too much television, or read for too long.

Sparky frowned at her. “The TARDIS used you as a conduit to speak with me, since I don’t have a connection with her,” she explained slowly. “She...confirmed that what you saw was the future, and that I should trust you on this. And that I should build you a basic transporter.” She looked pale, and there was panic she was trying to hide by looking away.

Rose lifted her hand to her head, trying to rub some of the pain away. “Why do you look so worried?” she asked after a moment, lowering her hand slowly.

Sparky looked back down at her, still pale. “A human shouldn’t be able to connect with a TARDIS like that. I don’t even think most telepathic species would be able to have such a cogent conversation with her. Honestly, your brain should be melting out of your ears right now.”

Rose blinked, trying to think back on what just happened, but a different memory came to her. “When I was traveling with the Doctor,” she started slowly, her eyes and voice distant, “I opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex. The Doctor took it out of me.”

Sparky nodded tensely. “You’ve told me.”

Rose shook her head slightly. “No, it’s not just...that’s all always been a blur. I’ve remembered bits and pieces, but now it’s clearer. I looked into the TARDIS, and she looked into me, and we became the Bad Wolf.”

Sparky shivered at that, and then froze when she saw the gold sheen that briefly went over Rose’s eyes. “I don’t understand how you’re alive,” she breathed. “The radiation alone should have killed you in seconds.” And yet here was evidence that the radiation was still present in her body.

Rose stared blankly ahead for a few moments, before looking up at Sparky. “She was protecting me,” she said simply.

Sparky swallowed. They definitely needed to return to this conversation, preferably when they were in a place where she could check over Rose. “Well hopefully the two of you can work together to make sure our little project works out, then,” she quipped lightly, standing up.

Rose furrowed her brows at the change in subject, but she nodded as she stood. “Is there anything else we need right now?”

Sparky shook her head. “Nope!” she said lightly. “Why don’t you go get some food, I’ll join you in a little bit. I just want to pick up my station a little.”

“Alright,” Rose said. She could tell Sparky was distracted, and it may well be hours before she left the warehouse they were in. “I’ll make sure they have some coffee for you.”

Sparky grinned. “You’re a good person, Rose Tyler,” she said as her friend walked out of this ship. She then glanced up at the console.

“What have you done to her?” she murmured quietly to the ship. The lights dimmed for a moment, and Sparky got the impression that the ship would be tight-lipped out this. She could only hope that the stubbornness of the TARDIS wouldn’t come at a cost to her friend.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this story we’re pretending Donna and her family went out of town for Easter, and that’s when the Titanic crashed. And that Tosh didn't die.

Sparky edged into the canteen, hoping that it would be empty despite the events of the day. She had no desire to be pulled into a conversation with some of the UNIT officers who were still on-duty and hadn’t gone into the city—or what was left of it.

But after the awfulness of this day, luck finally seemed to be on her side. The lights were off, and she didn’t see anyone sitting at any of the tables or standing in the kitchen. She crept across the room, not bothering to turn the lights on; she could see well-enough in the dark.

She quickly grabbed a sandwich from the fridge, mindful of the bright lights that briefly flashed across the hall. She grabbed an apple from the bowl of fruit sitting on the counter, and turned to return to the laboratory she had been holed up in all day.

Luck was no longer on her side. Rose had stepped in, and flicked the lights on as she did so.

“Figured you’d finally need some food,” Rose mumbled, sitting at a table near the door.

Sparky hesitated. She desperately wanted to go back to tinkering with the time capsule after eating her food, but she could see that Rose was deeply upset—which was both completely understandable, and something Sparky had little ability to deal with right now.

“I just needed a snack before getting back to work,” Sparky said carefully, slowly walking towards Rose.

Rose raised an eye at her, the expression odd on her face because of her red and swollen eyes. “No one blames you, you know that, right? You had no way of knowing what happened after you left.”

Sparky winced slightly, before sitting across from Rose with a sigh, setting her food down. She glared at her apple. “I should have sensed what was coming.”

Rose barked out a humorless laugh. “At least you sensed something. The TARDIS showed me a vision of everything that was going to happen before we send Donna back and I still missed this.”

Sparky frowned. “But you said that everything became fuzzy once you left the TARDIS. You couldn’t have known the details of this.” Rose nodded slightly, and Sparky realized what she was getting out. She scowled at her friend. “That’s different. I can see time-lines, but I missed this.”

Rose sighed. “But you’ve already said you have trouble with that here, because of how the timelines are wrong. It’s exactly the same; you couldn’t’ve known. At least you could tell something was coming, and we were able to start evacuations and begin rescues sooner. More people are alive now because of you.”

Sparky continued to glare at her apple, not bothering to reply. It felt like something hot and heavy was sitting in her stomach, though she couldn’t tell if the feeling was fury or shame.

Rose seemed to sense that she wasn’t willing to talk. “I need to go see Donna again soon, I think,” she said slowly. Sparky glanced, noting the gold specks in her eyes with some concern, though she tried not to show it. “We’re getting close to the end.”

“Is the TARDIS telling you that?” Sparky asked carefully, tossing her apple into the air and catching it softly. 

Rose frowned, her eyes growing distant. For a brief moment, it seemed like the gold specks in Rose’s eyes were swirling, but then they were gone, leaving her eyes looking darker than normal. “I think it might just be an imprint,” she said finally.

Sparky swallowed before nodding, standing up quickly and causing Rose to startle. “Well, we better get cracking then, huh? The sooner we get back to the normal universe, the better!”

Rose followed her out of the cafeteria. “Sparks, you can’t just keep working like this,” she snapped, frustration evident in her voice. “You need some time to rest, today was a rough day.”

Sparky spun around sharply when she reached her lab. “Exactly. It has been a bad day, on the tail end of a bad few weeks that we can fix if we get Donna Noble back to her universe. So, excuse me while I try to do that!” With that, she stormed into her lab and put her food down at her work bench, hoping that Rose would go back to her room.

But of course, Rose Tyler never does what other people want her to do.

“I want this all fixed too! Do you think I like being in a universe where the Doctor is dead?” Sparky glanced at Rose to see her eyes were glistening, but with tears now. “I want all of those people alive too, but what’s the point if you run yourself so ragged that you can’t do anything once we get back to our proper universe?”

Sparky stared at the floor for a long moment. “We’re just the messengers, aren’t we? We need to tell the Doctor that the Darkness is coming. We can do that by telling Donna, and by getting her back to our world.” She held up a hand as Rose started to protest, a weak smile coming over her face. “And you’re forgetting that I only need a few hours of sleep a week. Let me work tonight, and maybe tomorrow will be better.”

Rose nodded slowly, letting Sparky deflect. “How close are you to finishing up?”

Sparky looked over at the time capsule she was working on. “I have a few more tests to run, but I’ll be done once I get the huon particles UNIT collected from under the Thames.” 

Rose stared at her in surprise. “I know you were upset that this was taking longer than you thought it would, but everyone thought this would take you a few more months!” 

Sparky rolled her eyes, collapsing into her chair. “I would have been done weeks ago if UNIT would let me collect the huon particles myself,” she muttered, a dark look passing over her face again. Rose suddenly understood the source of Sparky’s anger and frustration about the ship crashing into London. They could have already set the world to rights if she was given the resources she needed. 

“At least we got Donna and her family out of town,” she said gently, leaning against the workbench. 

Sparky had built her a transporter that could take her small distances—"Don’t try to go more than 500 miles with this unless you want to see what JK Rowling meant by splinching!”— and she had made sure that Donna got a winning lottery ticket so that she would be out of town. Neither she nor Sparky could clearly remember what was coming, but both had retained the strong impression from the TARDIS that Donna Noble had to leave London before Christmas. Some UNIT agents shadowed them out of town to make sure they safely arrived at the hotel. 

Sparky hummed. “When do you have to go to Donna again?”

Rose shrugged. “Not for a while, but if you’re going to be finished early, then I can go to her sooner, as long as we can keep track of where she’ll be now. Some of the higher-ups were talking about what to do with the survivors and everyone who has to leave because of the radiation from the ship.”

Sparky exhaled sharply. “I didn’t even think about the refugees,” she murmured. “We really need to fix this all.”

Rose nodded sadly, pushing off the bench. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to convince Donna to go back,” she confessed, staring at the TARDIS sadly. “I’ve been wearing her down, but she’s so stubborn. I don’t know if she’ll believe us when we tell her she has to change the past.”

Sparky frowned, leaning back in her chair. “Do you think we could just explain the thing on her back?”

Rose shook her head. “I don’t think that’ll be good enough for her.”

Sparky closed her eyes, rubbing her temple. “There might be something I can do. I’m hoping what happened today will rush the UNIT scientists, but I think I can create a rudimentary psychic field to let Donna see what’s on her back.”

Rose nodded. “Let me know when you’re set up, and I’ll try to get her back here.” Sparky nodded, lost in thought as she pulled out her notepad. Rose recognized that she would not get much more conversation out of her friend, and left to go to the room UNIT provided them.

When she reached her room, she only bothered shrugging off her jacket before flopping down onto her cot. She wasn’t completely sure of how long she had been working today, sending out evacuation warnings and then helping people escape the rubble, but it felt like it had been days since she had last laid down.

But no matter how tired she felt, she couldn’t fall asleep. She kept seeing the faces of the dead, and overlaying all of that, a melancholic song that was growing quieter each day.

“The TARDIS is dying,” she murmured to herself, tears pricking her eyes. As she said it she knew it was true, and some of Sparky’s urgency took hold. With a sigh, she sat up, but the song grew louder for a moment and she felt herself drift off, almost forcefully.

Within moments, she was asleep. 

 

Sparky glanced up, hearing movement down the hall from her workspace. Rose had left to talk to Donna again, and from the excited murmurs she caught snippets of, she had been successful this time. Sparky let a small smile come over her face as she began the warm-up procedures on the psychic field she had built with the help of Dr. Taylor. 

Rose had wanted to try a subtler approach, to get Donna to come to UNIT on her own, but Sparky had convinced her to be blunt. With Rose’s revelation that the TARDIS was dying, Sparky was unwilling to stretch out their timeline for any reason. So she had sent Rose out with the instruction to do whatever she could to convince Donna to come to the warehouse. 

A soldier came up to her, one she vaguely recognized but hadn’t learned the name of. “Ma’am, Miss Tyler should be here in a few moments with Miss Noble. The convoy just radioed ahead.”

She smiled at her. “Thank you,” she started, intending to ask the soldier’s name, but she had already turned to walk away. Sparky stared after her for a moment before shaking her head as she checked the status of the psychic field. 

True enough, a line of Jeeps entered the warehouse, and Rose quickly guided Donna over to Sparky. 

“Donna Noble, this is my friend Sparky. She’s the one who can show you what’s on your back.” Rose said quickly. 

Sparky smiled at Donna, who was clearly trying to hide her nerves. “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” she said.

Donna made a face. “What are you, twelve? What are you doing in a place like this?”

Rose stifled a laugh at Sparky stared in bemusement at Donna. “Um, thank you? My mom always said I should be grateful to have such a young face,” she said easily, pulling her hair behind her ears. “But I’m sure you’d rather see what’s on your back than hear my life story.”

Donna blinked once and swallowed, before nodding tightly. “Yeah, that’d be nice,” she said quietly.

Sparky nodded slowly. “Step over here, in front of this mirror,” she said, guiding Donna to stand in front of a trifold mirror. “I’m going to activate the sensors around the mirror, and they’re going to excite the psychic and temporal fields around you to let you perceive what’s there, okay?” Donna frowned at her, but Sparky took a step back and activated the machine with her iSonic before she could say anything.

Blue-ish light glowed from around the mirror, catching Donna’s attention and causing her to gasp. She began to turn, staring at her back in horror.

Rose leaned over to Sparky. “What is that?” she whispered, gesturing lightly at the giant beetle.

Sparky frowned. “I’m not really sure, actually, but whatever it is, it created this whole world, so it can’t be anything good.”

Rose nodded, and stepped over to Donna. Sparky took that as her sign to turn off the mirror and start up her time capsule. It took a few minutes, and in that time Rose and Captain Magambo explained to Donna what she would need to do. 

“Step right up, Miss Noble,” Sparky said once the group made its way over to her. 

“Has anyone even tested this thing?” Donna asked brashly.

Sparky shook her head with a small grin. “No, but I’m very good,” she replied.

Donna rolled her eyes. “Well that’s nice. The child is very good.”

Sparky shrugged. “I assume everything has been explained to you?”

Donna nodded, stepping into the small metallic capsule, eyeing the wiring and odd tubing. “You just press a button, and I’m going to be in the past?”

Sparky nodded. “Essentially, yes. I’ve placed you within 50 meters, and you should have about a minute to make sure you turn left.” 

Donna stepped into the machine. “I do this, and everything will be set to rights? The world with the Doctor?” she asked, her voice quiet.

Sparky looked at her carefully. “Yes.”

“Then I’m ready,” Donna declared. Sparky hit the button, and Donna was gone. 

And a few moments later, so was everyone else.

 

Rose and Sparky stumbled, falling onto hard concrete floor. Sparky glanced around, before closing her eyes in relief. 

“Where the hell were you?” a rough voice asked, and Sparky opened her eyes again to see Mickey pulling Rose up into a hug.

“How long were we gone?” she asked once Mickey released her.

“About eight minutes,” Tosh replied from her desk, looking at Sparky and Rose with relief. Jack came into her field of vision, and he pulled her up into a rough hug as well.

“Was it because there were two of you?” he asked, glancing at her before also pulling Rose into a hug. “And its so good to see you,” he said, squeezing Rose tightly. She laughed as he spun her around.

Sparky leaned against the wall. “No, there was some anomaly that we were pulled into, a bubble universe created around the Doctor’s companion. We couldn’t leave until we set things to right.” She glanced around. “Anyway, where’s Gwen?”

“With Rhys,” Tosh said. “If the universe is ending like you say, we thought she should get a night off.”

“Yeah, and speaking off, shouldn’t we call the Doctor?” Mickey asked, crossing his arms. Everyone looked at each other for a moment before Jack sighed.

“Well, the happy reunion can wait,” he said. “My phone is in my office, I’ll go grab it.”

Tosh stood as well. “And I’ll order some food, something tells me we’ll need it.” She left the Hub, with Mickey following her with suggestions.

Sparky smiled at their retreating figures. All of the tension she had felt from being in the wrong universe left her, and despite the urgency of the situation, she felt lighter than she had in months. She turned to Rose with a smile on her face, but her smile quickly fell.

Instead of gold flecks, her irises were now completely gold, and she was staring gravely at Sparky. “You have to send them back,” she said—or at least, Sparky thought she said. There was an odd, dual quality to her voice causing it to echo in the empty space around them. 

“Go back where?” Sparky asked carefully.

Rose’s eyes flickered to her harmonic shifter, before it suddenly activated, and Sparky was gone.


End file.
